Islanders Fall 3-2 in OT to Panthers

If you wanted to pattern your New York Islanders after a currently hot NHL team, you could do no wrong making it the Florida Panthers. The Cats showed why at UBS Arena last night with their 3-2 win in overtime.

Last season, The Cats From Sunrise imported Paul Maurice in mid-season and Coach Night Time (P.M. in case you're wondering) got them to the Stanley Cup Final.

This season the Islanders imported Patrick Roy in mid schedule and the newly-minted coach has a record of one win two losses and the good point, if you will.

"Unfortunately," said Roy, "they scored two power-play goals. But we were playing the Stanley Cup finalists and they are a really good team. I considered it a nice challenge for our guys and I love the progress of this team."

With the All-Star break now upon us, it means that Lou Lamoriello has to be activating the ever-reliable "Next Move Machine"

Insert a wooden nickel and see what happens.

If all things were being equal ,and normal -- as in yesteryear -- the goaltending situation would be honky-dory. But right now it's neither dory nor Honky. Ilya Sorokin -- alias The Franchise Carrier On His Back -- has not been his Old Reliable self.

Or, maybe Ilya is ill from "puck-itis," otherwise known as seeing too much rubber night after night.

Wisely, our new sage coach started Semyon Varlamov who did his usual yeoman-like job but here's the rub. Varly had to make 34 saves while his opposite, Anthony Stolarz, was required to make 21 stops.

"Varly played a terrific game," said Kyle Palmieri who tied the game at the end after Varlamov was pulled for an extra skater. "He made huge saves that bailed us out and kept us in the game."

Coach Roy knows that being outshot so often is a major issue with his new team and even mentioned it a day or three after he arrived. How he solves it I do not know. But the Law of Averages explicitly states that if you get outshot over and over, chances are the other guys will win.

To the Isles credit, they twice rallied to tie what could have been an out and out loss. Down 1-0 late in the second Simon Holmstrom beat Stolarz at 16:29 on helpers by Jean-Gabriel Pageau and the newly surfaced Oliver Wahlstrom. (Yay! Ollie!!)

"Wahlstrom played a very good game," added Roy who's trying to get the most out of a forward who had been disappointing but looms as a reclamation project.

Down 2-1 in the third, -- and with less than two minutes left and Varly pulled-- Palmieri came through on deliveries from Noah Dobson and Mat Barzal. The time was 18:31 and assured a precious point.

"Anytime you pull your goalie and score," Palmieri concluded, "it's big. For us, we would have liked a win but still this is a big point for us."

Ah, but those chancy overtimes.

Brock Nelson had a tantalizing rush about 1:40 into the sudden death but Stolarz stole our extra point.

Then, the Isles were caught in a line change and Evan Rodriques launched a two on one, delivered the perfect pass to Oliver Ekman-Larsson and that was that at 1:57.

Starting today, Lou and Patrick will do some serious huddling to figure the path forward,

Hopefully -- The Maven repeats, hopefully -- in the direction of Playoff Village,

For one thing, the team needs a breather. For another, Roy could use one as well while he's trying to figure a number of formulas:

1. How to get his guys not to be outshot so often.

2. How to reinforce a defense that has been riddled for more than a month.

3. How to fortify the penalty kill which allowed the two goals that decided the game.

Or, to put it more bluntly -- how to win hockey games!

We can say that the double-comebacks were steps in the right direction but the bigger steps must be taken after the All-Star Break.

As the late, great Yogi Berra would say, "It's getting late early!"

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The Panthers Are What The Islanders Want To Be & They Showed It With A 3-2 OT Win