NEWARK, NJ – The New Jersey Devils head into the Olympic break on a loss to the New York Islanders.
The Islanders Bo Horvat scored late in the third period to break a 1-1 draw and the Devils ar handed a loss from the Islanders, 3-1.
“We were right there again,” Hishier said of the game being tied late in the game. “But too many times this season, it’s definitely very, very frustrating.”
Casey Cizikas opened the games scoring in the second period, before Nico Hischier answered late in the middle frame, with his 19th goal of the season. The goal sent the Devils and Islanders into the final 20 minutes before the extended break, deadlocked at 1-1.
Horvat scored the game-winner with 3:27 to play, and Mat Barzal hit the empty net with less than a minute to play to seal the win for New York.
“Their top scorer kicks in alone on Jake (Allen) and thats the game,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Horvat’s game-winning goal. “That’s kind of the difference, kind of where we’re at.”
“We did a lot of good things to win this game, but at the end we come up short again,” Hischier added. “We should have just tried to get the overtime and we’ve been good this year in overtime and try to get the second point there. It sucks to have that as our last game.”
New Jersey enters the break with a 28-27-2 record and 58 points.
“Not good enough, not the way we wanted to go into the break,” Jake Allen, who made 11 saves on 13 shots, said. “It’s going to be tough three weeks.”
Horvat had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves for the Islanders.
The National Hockey League will now take a hiatus as its players venture to Milan for the Olympic Games. The mens hockey tournament starts next week with the preliminary round starting on Feb. 11, where Simon Nemec and Slovakia will take on Finland. That game will be followed by Jesper Bratt and Jacob Markstrom competing for Sweden against Italy.
Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler open their tournament a day later when Switzerland goes up against France on Feb. 12.