The Senators were unable to overcome a quick three-goal Islander outburst in the second period.
The Ottawa Senators' three-game winning streak ended Friday night, losing 5-3 to the New York Islanders. The Senators lost another run-and-gun game, dropping back to .500 (8-8-0) on the season. Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves in the win, and the Islanders have now won three straight games,
New York was hit with the injury bug very early in the first period. Adam Pelech and Sebastian Aho both left the game and neither returned.
The Senators swiftly capitalized on the Islanders' banged up defence, scoring on a powerplay goal from Drake Batherson to go up 1-0. The goal was set up by a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play to Batherson in the slot, who snapped it in off Semyon Varlamov's shoulder.
The Islanders scored quickly after to tie the game with a shot from Alex Romanov that was put away on the rebound after a couple of hacks by Kyle Palmieri.
The Senators thought they had reclaimed the lead on Parker Kelly's slapshot in the second period, but the Islanders challenged for offside and were successful. The replay showed Vladimir Tarasenko was offside early in the sequence. Tarasenko wasn't even on the ice anymore when Kelly eventually scored.
The Islanders quickly turned around and made it 2-1 on Oliver Wahlstrom's beautifully tipped goal from an Alexander Romanov point shot.
That was the first of three Islanders goals in just over three minutes. Matthew Barzal made it 3-1, scoring on a powerplay, and then six seconds later, Brock Nelson caught the Sens flat, walked in behind the defence, and ripped the puck by Anton Forsberg.
The Senators roared back 59 seconds later on a goal by Tim Stutzle after a nice pass from Mathieu Joseph. Stutzle wasn't done; less than a minute after that, he set up Batherson for his second of the game to make it 4-3.
The Islanders got their insurance goal in the third period when Noah Dobson's point shot hit Tarasenko and then went in off Simon Holmstrom, sliding past Forsberg.
Senators head coach DJ Smith was not happy they couldn't take advantage of the Islanders playing with just four defencemen.
"We didn't create enough," Smith said. "We just didn't make it hard enough on them defensively."
In particular, Smith wasn't happy with the fourth Islanders' goal.
"We win the draw, and we guess on a 50/50 (play)," Smith said. "It's not hard. You've got to be hard. You're playing against the best players in the world."
That was a reference to Sens defenceman Jakob Chychrun trying to accept a centre ice face-off win with one hand on his stick, leading to a two-on-one in the other direction. Nelson then scored on Forsberg, short-side, from a bad angle. Forsberg admitted that was a shot he needs to stop.
The Senators continued their season-long vice of playing poorly in the second period. The Senators tried to push back in the third period, and Stutzle felt they could have come back.
"I was 100% confident we're gonna win that game", said Stutzle. "There's never a doubt in my mind, even if they score five."
By the Numbers:
The Islanders blocked 31 shots, the most ever by a Senators opponent in a single game. Anton Forsberg has the worst save percentage in the NHL at .850.
The Senators host Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers on Monday night.