Downward Trending Islanders Fall 4-1 to Washington; Ovechkin Nets Two

The New York Islanders lost their fourth straight game, falling 4-1 to the Washington Capitals. Alexander Ovechkin scored two goals for the Caps, while Alex Romanov had the lone Islanders goal.

ELMONT, NY – The New York Islanders lost their fourth straight game in a tough 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals. Alexander Ovechkin scored two goals in the game for Washington en route to the win.

Semyon Varlamov was strong, making 24 saves on 27 shots. Hunter Shepard got his second NHL win in his second career start. Shepard made 36 saves on 37 Islander shots.

The Capitals scored the game’s first goal 9:18 into the first period. Alexander Ovechkin scored the goal directly off a faceoff. Evgeny Kuznetsov won the draw right to Ovechkin and he buried it low glove-side on Varlamov. It was an unfortunate lapse for the Islanders as they started with more offensive chances and were stout defensively.

Alexander Romanov then scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-1. The Islanders were aggressive on the fore-check, stealing an errand puck from Shepard. Barzal dished the puck to the point where Romanov put it in the empty cage. Horvat was given a secondary assist.

That game-tying goal came with just 42.5 seconds remaining in the period. It was much-needed for the Islanders, who were the better team in the first period spending a lot of time in the Washington zone.

The puck bounced all over the ice tonight, with many players slipping as well, especially in the first period. New York outshot Washington 15 to 8 after 20 minutes.

In the second period, it was more of the same as the Islanders had the better chances but conceded the first goal. Varlamov made an incredible diving stop, but the puck was batted into the net out of mid-air on the rebound attempt by Nic Dowd at 13:05, giving the Capitals a 2-1 lead. Nicolas Aube-Kubel and John Carlson were given the assists.

Washington doubled their lead in the final minute of the second period, specifically with 40 seconds remaining. UBS Arena went silent after Aliaksei Protas was left alone in front and one-timed the puck five-hole on Varlamov. For Protas, it was his first goal of the year, it was assisted by Matthew Phillps and Connor McMichael.

The Islanders couldn’t buy a goal in the second and third periods, even with the numerous chances they had. New York outshot Washington 37 to 28 and made Shepard uncomfortable all night, but couldn’t put the puck in the net after Romanov’s first-period tally.

Varlamov was pulled in favor of an extra attacker with a little more than three minutes remaining in the game, but the Islanders were unable to cut the Capitals deficit. With three seconds to go, Ovechkin added his second goal of the game on the empty net, helping his chase to catch Wayne Gretzky (894) on the NHL’s all-time goal record. He now has four goals this year and 826 all-time.

The Islanders move to 5-5-3 on the season with the fourth straight loss and now have the same amount of wins as regulation losses for the first time since October 24.

Lineup:

Mathew Barzal - Bo Horvat - Simon Holmstrom

Pierre Engvall - Brock Nelson - Kyle Palmieri

Anders Lee - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Hudson Fasching

Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck

Sebastian Aho - Noah Dobson

Alexander Romanov - Ryan Pulock

Samuel Bolduc - Scott Mayfield

Semyon Varlamov

Ilya Sorokin

Up Next: The Islanders kick off their Western Canada road trip Monday night at 8:30 PM ET