Islanders eliminated from playoff contention with home loss to Canadiens
Nick Suzuki #14, of the Montreal Canadiens, celebrates his second period goal with teammate Lane Hutson #48 as Ilya Sorokin #30 and Anders Lee #27 of the New York Islanders look on at UBS Arena on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Islanders had to believe it was still possible to make the playoffs, of course, but as they entered Sunday night’s game against the Canadiens at UBS Arena, the math staring them in the face was cruel.
According to playoffstatus.com, the Islanders entered Sunday with only a 2% chance of making the playoffs. That dropped to 0% in one 55-second span of the second period.
Montreal scored three times in less than a minute to seize control and ultimately put the Islanders out of their misery, dealing them a 4-1 loss that officially eliminated them from playoff contention with one game left in the season.
“It’s tough,’’ Anders Lee said. “It’s tough that we . . . didn’t play our best hockey when we needed to and we didn’t get this done. It’s a disappointing finish to what was going pretty good for quite a while this year.
“We needed to get a couple wins here in the last couple days, and we fell short. It’s a lot to think about, lots to wrap our heads around right now . . . But just, it sucks.”
The result came after general manager Mathieu Darche fired coach Patrick Roy on April 5 and replaced him with Pete DeBoer with four games left. The Islanders will miss the playoffs for the second straight season.
With the Rangers and Devils also missing the postseason, it marks the first time since the Devils moved to New Jersey in 1982 that no metropolitan-area team will make the playoffs.
Goals by Nick Suzuki at 15:56 of the second period, Ivan Demidov at 16:24 and Alex Newhook at 16:51 gave the Canadiens a 3-0 lead, stunning the Islanders and their fans.
“I mean, that was the game, right?’’ DeBoer said of the Canadiens’ second-period blitz. “It was 55 seconds . . . Some self-inflicted things, their power-play goal, we gave up a two-on-one . . . But that’s what a good team does to you. They expose you. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes defensively . . . But when we did, they capitalized.
“And on the other side, it’s hard to win in this league with one goal,’’ he said. “We’ve got to find a way to convert some of the opportunities we’re getting into goals, which we really didn’t do this weekend at all.’’
Casey Cizikas’ stick-shaft tip of Scott Mayfield’s left point shot got past Montreal goalie Jacob Fowler (30 saves) and put the Islanders on the board at 8:45 of the third period. Montreal's Zac Bolduc scored with 14.7 seconds remaining.
After beating lowly Toronto, 5-3, on Thursday in DeBoer’s first game behind the bench, the Islanders dropped both games over the weekend, beginning with a 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Saturday. Cizikas’ goal was the Islanders’ first in 118:25 since Cal Ritchie scored at 10:20 of the third period against Toronto.
The loss was the Islanders’ sixth in seven games. They are 1-2 under DeBoer.
The Canadiens (48-23-10, 106 points) moved into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division. They have one game remaining and Buffalo (106 points) has two games left. Tampa Bay has 104 points with two games left.
The end for the Islanders started when Suzuki banged in a feed from Juraj Slafkovsky to open the scoring. On the play, Matthew Schaefer was called for a high-sticking penalty. Demidov converted on the power play to make it 2-0. Newhook then beat Ilya Sorokin (18 saves) with a shot off the rush to make it 3-0.
“We put ourselves in this spot,’’ Bo Horvat said. “Down the stretch here, when it really mattered and we needed to get the wins, we just didn’t get the job done. It’s a pretty crappy feeling. It’s on us in this room.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
More Islanders
