Islanders shut out at UBS Arena by Senators as playoff hopes take a hit
Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators celebrates his third-period goal as Islanders' Matthew Schaefer and goalie Ilya Sorokin look on at UBS Arena on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Pete DeBoer has not seen most of this Islanders season.
So the new coach’s truism on the importance of special teams was more of a blanket statement, not an indictment of his new team.
Yet it fully explains why the Islanders’ playoff chances were left gasping after a 3-0 loss to the Senators on Saturday afternoon at UBS Arena.
“They won the special teams battle,” DeBoer said. “It’s tough to win in this league this time of the year if you don’t win the special teams battle.”
The power play has been a weak point all season for the Islanders, and they went 0-for-5 with only three shots and gave up a shorthanded goal. They also allowed a five-on-three power-play goal in suffering their second shutout loss of the season. The Islanders, whose power play is ranked 30th in the NHL, had three minutes, 40 seconds of man-advantage time in the third period.
The special teams disadvantage harpooned a strong defensive effort and willingness to play the body at every opportunity.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating, because we felt like we did everything pretty well five-on-five,” Cal Ritchie said. “I thought we were playing fast, playing the right way. We didn’t give up much. We had our looks. It was just one of those games where you can’t find the back of the net. It’s frustrating. And their penalty kill was pretty solid. It came higher [to the blue line]. We kind of started figuring more things out in the third and we had some looks. It’s just frustrating we couldn’t find the back of the net.”
NaturalStatTrick.com calculated the Islanders to have an 11-2 advantage in high-danger chances skating five-on-five and a 14-8 edge in all situations.
Still, the loss ended the Islanders’ ability to catch the Senators for a wild-card spot and, with only two games remaining, significantly narrowed their chances of beating out the Flyers, Blue Jackets or Capitals for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Islanders can reach third place if they win each of their final two games, the Flyers lose twice in any fashion and the Blue Jackets gain no more than two points and the Capitals gain no more than three points.
“I loved the start, loved the emotion we came with,” said DeBoer, who made his Islanders debut with a 5-3 win over the visiting Maple Leafs on Thursday. “They knew the importance of the game.
“I liked a lot of the things we did. We defended well. We didn’t give up much. Created some stuff. I thought the shorthanded goal took some of the momentum away from the first period. It turned into a lot of special teams the rest of the way.”
Ilya Sorokin stopped 13 shots for the Islanders (43-32-5) and Linus Ullmark made 23 saves for the Senators (43-27-10), who were 1-for-5 on the power play.
The Islanders will continue their season-concluding four-game homestand against the playoff-bound Canadiens on Sunday night before Tuesday night’s finale against the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes.
Anders Lee and Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves off the game’s opening faceoff, a rematch of their bout to start the Senators’ 3-2 win in Ottawa on March 19. Tkachuk responded to a request from Lee after Tkachuk asked Lee to go in their previous game in an effort to spark his team.
“I gave him one in his building, I knew he’d give me one in mine,” Lee said. “Just trying to get it going. It’s part of this game. I thought we had a great response.”
“Big credit to Anders Lee,” DeBoer said. “That’s why he’s wearing the ‘C’. He got us emotionally invested in that game right off the bat.”
But Ridly Greig finished a shorthanded rush to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 13:06 of the first period and the Islanders had trouble with power-play entries all game after scoring two man-advantage goals against the Maple Leafs.
“You’ve got to give them credit sometimes,” said defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who flew past Michael Amadio on the wall going into the Senators’ zone as Amadio started the shorthanded rush that led to Greig’s goal. “We didn’t do a good enough job. The shorthanded goal is on me. I’ve got to just decide to stay back there. I thought I had it. I didn’t get a puck or body.”
Defenseman Jake Sanderson’s five-on-three power-play goal at 12:36 of the third period made it 2-0. Michael Amadio scored an empty-netter with 2:31 remaining.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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