DETROIT — Throughout both of the games the Islanders have played without Bo Horvat, it’s been bend-don’t-break hockey.
They finally broke in the third period Tuesday, ceding a one-goal lead they’d hung onto for most of the night by the skin of their teeth and losing a 3-2 decision to the Red Wings on Alex DeBrincat’s late power-play winner.
Their play was ugly, they didn’t generate much offense, they relied on Ilya Sorokin to a dangerous level. The neutral zone, a strength for most of the season, didn’t look quite right; the forecheck was nonexistent.
You can see the domino effects all over the lineup as the Islanders struggle to adjust to a reality they fervently hope won’t last long.
Still, to the Islanders’ credit, they stayed in this one through some vigilant and desperate defending despite not having anywhere near their best.
For most of the night, the Red Wings were kept out of the middle and the Islanders blocked nearly every shot they could.
Of course, it helped, too, that Sorokin is nearly unbeatable at the moment. John Leonard and DeBrincat both had breakaways all by themselves, but Sorokin turned aside each of them, along with a series of other chances.
So, thanks to Emil Heineman’s one-timer just 4:27 into the game, the Islanders carried a 1-0 lead into the final 20 minutes.
This, though, was not the night for Sorokin to break Chico Resch’s franchise record for shutouts. Axel Sandin-Pellikka broke through for Detroit to tie it at one just 2:03 into the third, beating Sorokin short side.
Just a couple of minutes later, the Red Wings took a 2-1 lead on a power-play wrister from DeBrincat at the left-hand dot.
Again, the Islanders had some fight in them.
Scott Mayfield strolled down the slot and scored his first goal of the year to make it 2-2 at 11:26 of the third period.
It was Mayfield, though, who tripped Dylan Larkin at 16:50 of the third on a play that proved decisive.
On the ensuing power play, it was DeBrincat — again and from the same left circle — who put the Red Wings up 3-2, and this time the lead held.
The consternation about Mat Barzal’s status earlier in the day proved misplaced. Not only did Barzal take warmups and play, relegating Max Tsyplakov to the press box again, his line with Heineman and Jonathan Drouin was the Islanders’ only forward grouping to gain much traction at all.
The trio of Cal Ritchie, Anthony Duclair and Max Shabanov suffered two of the longest defensive-zone shifts of the game and struggled to break out all night.
The bottom six struggled and the defense corps struggled to put together a good first pass.
The obvious counter to all of that, though, is that the Islanders are in survival mode right now without Horvat (or, for that matter, Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov).
These are losses any team would struggle to withstand.
But the Islanders need to find a more sustainable way to survive a stretch that, if they were fully healthy, would be a chance to beef up the win column against some of the NHL’s chaff.
No matter who’s on the schedule right now, though, you can bet it won’t be easy.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
