The Islanders pulled off a near-impossible comeback.
But after dropping three of four in what should be an easy week, the Islanders will need more, sooner.
The Isles closed out a three-game streak in tough fashion with a 7-4 loss by the Blues at UBS Arena. But this game – and this week – should have been the easy part. The hard part is next: New Jersey, Carolina and Boston. As of Tuesday morning, those were three of the four teams ahead of the Islanders in the Eastern Conference, including two ahead of them in the Metropolitan Division.
At 16-11-0, the Islanders have scored enough points to survive a bad stretch, but it would be much easier to avoid them altogether in a tight division. And on Tuesday, defensive breakdowns and an inability to convert chances led to disappointment.
Down 5-1, the Islanders almost came back in the third period. Zach Parisa scored on the power play, Hudson Fasching scored his first goal as an Islander, and Jean-Gabriel Pageaut made it 5-4 21 seconds later.
The Islanders have made such a comeback before. But on Tuesday, they didn’t.
Empty goals by Robert Thomas and Noel Acciari — and the Isles played a torrid five minutes to start the third period — showed that.
Acciari made it 4-1 for the Blue Jays at 3:37 of the third when he deflected Justin Faulk’s shot past Sorokin. Just 13 seconds later, Colton Parayko beat Sorokin cleanly from the blue line — giving up five goals on the first 21 shots he faced, bowing out on a rare night where Sorokin was pretty dead. .
Things got worse less than 30 seconds later when Adam Pelech ended up in the corner, needing the help of a trainer and Josh Bailey to come off the ice and not return to the game.
A recent return gave a sigh of relief. But not enough.
The Blues took the lead in the second half when Scott Mayfield misplayed the puck at the blue line, which led to Ivan Barbashev finishing William Bitten for a 2-1 lead at 3:51. .
At 14:58, Ryan O’Reilly makes a rebound after a long Islanders possession to make it three. Mayfield and Alexander Romanov were on the ice for the first three St. Louis goals, highlighting a brutal night for the second pair.
The Islanders’ aggressive nature worked against them on Tuesday, as Mayfield had two interceptions on the ice that led to goals, and the Islanders had little to show for it. They defeated their opponents, but for winning the battle of Corsi, you get almost as many points in the standings as you are back.
The Islanders may feel good about how they played this week, but losing games to the Flyers, Predators and Blues will hurt, especially with a big litmus test looming.
Last time out, the Isles had a tough look to figure something out, but they won seven of eight games. This is not a group to be reckoned with and there are currently no shades of last season.
Still, we’ll learn a lot more about these islanders next week. One way or another.
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