DETROIT — The Islanders have played bend-don’t-break hockey since Bo Horvat went down with an injury.
They finally broke in the third period Tuesday, ceding a one-goal lead they’d hung onto for most of the night by the skin of their teeth and losing a 3-2 decision to the Red Wings on Alex DeBrincat’s late power-play winner.
Their play was ugly, they didn’t generate much offense, they relied on Ilya Sorokin to a dangerous level. The neutral zone, a strength for most of the season, didn’t look quite right; the forecheck was nonexistent. You can see the domino effects all over the lineup as the Islanders struggle to adjust to a reality they fervently hope won’t last long.
“I think we pretty much did it to ourselves a little bit today,” Emil Heineman said. “Some turnovers, not as crisp as we’ve been in our end. Our forecheck didn’t bring too much today. So, not the effort we want.”
Still, to the Islanders’ credit, they stayed in this one through some vigilant and desperate defending despite not having anywhere near their best. For most of the night, the Red Wings were kept out of the middle and the Islanders blocked nearly every shot they could.
Of course, it helped, too, that Sorokin is nearly unbeatable at the moment. John Leonard and DeBrincat both had breakaways all by themselves, but Sorokin turned aside each of them, along with a series of other chances to finish with 18 saves.
So, thanks to Heineman’s one-timer just 4:27 into the game, the Islanders carried a 1-0 lead into the final 20 minutes.
This, though, was not the night for Sorokin to break Chico Resch’s franchise record for shutouts. Axel Sandin-Pellikka broke through for Detroit to tie it at one just 2:03 into the third, beating Sorokin short side.
Just a couple of minutes later, the Red Wings took a 2-1 lead on a power-play wrister from DeBrincat at the left-hand dot.
Again, the Islanders had some fight in them.
Scott Mayfield strolled down the slot and scored his first goal of the year to make it 2-2 at 11:26 of the third period.
It was Mayfield, though, who tripped Dylan Larkin at 16:50 of the third on a play that proved decisive.
On the ensuing power play it was DeBrincat — again and from the same left circle — who put the Red Wings up 3-2, and this time the lead held.
“I think we were just a little bit out of sync coming out of our end on a couple plays,” Anders Lee told The Post. “Credit to them for their forecheck tonight. [When] we’ve been really good at that, breaking out, our game changes quite a bit.”
Early in the day, Mat Barzal’s status was a question mark after he missed morning skate with maintenance. Not only did Barzal take warmups and play, relegating Max Tsyplakov to the press box again, but his line with Heineman and Jonathan Drouin was the Islanders’ only forward grouping to gain much traction at all.
The trio of Cal Ritchie, Anthony Duclair and Max Shabanov suffered two of the longest defensive-zone shifts of the game and struggled to break out all night. Between them and the fourth line, the Islanders had just two shots on goal, per Natural Stat Trick.
The defense corps, as a whole, was uncharacteristically poor making first passes, contributing plenty to the breakout issues.
“We forced a lot of passes and when we do this it’s a little more difficult,” coach Patrick Roy said. “But every time we kept it simple, either up and put it behind their D, they did a good job closing the blue line.”
The obvious counter to all of that, though, is that the Islanders are in survival mode right now without Horvat (or, for that matter, Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov, both of whom are out for the season).
“We’re not looking for excuses after a game,” Roy said when this was brought up postgame. “… It happens to every team to miss a quality player during the course of the season. We’re missing three. But hey, we stay in the present moment. We want to give ourselves a chance.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
