The Islanders played a terrific six minutes Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for them, there were 54 minutes left after that.<\/p>\n
And for all of Ilya Sorokin\u2019s heroics in net, the Islanders\u2019 netminder couldn\u2019t overcome the team in front of him Saturday night, as the Predators defeated the Isles 4-3 on Roman Josi\u2019s late winner, snapping the home side\u2019s nascent three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Ilya Sorokin allows a goal during the Islanders\u2019 4-3 loss to the Predators on Jan. 31, 2026 at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t regain the momentum and the game we wanted to play the rest of the way,\u201d captain Anders Lee said. \u201cWe had a tough night, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game was tied at three entering the final 20 minutes, but the writing was on the wall after the Predators had played up ice for the entire second period \u2014 which coach Patrick Roy called \u201cprobably our worst period of the year\u201d after the game.<\/p>\n
The Islanders were managing the puck poorly, struggling to break out and to clear out the area in front of Sorokin\u2019s crease, essentially leaving the goaltender to fend for himself.<\/p>\n
Given how well Sorokin \u2014 who had 38 saves on 42 shots \u2014 has played lately, it\u2019s perhaps unsurprising that playing in such a way didn\u2019t immediately doom the Islanders.<\/p>\n
Tony DeAngelo did not leave much to interpretation in the second period, though, when he told the team\u2019s radio broadcast, \u201cWe\u2019re horrible tonight. This is a really bad game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ironically, DeAngelo appeared to break the tie just 1:10 into the third, but his shot that found the back of the net was immediately called off for goaltender interference. The Islanders, believing that Anthony Duclair had contacted Juuse Saros outside of the crease, challenged the call but lost.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer scores a goal during the Islanders\u2019 home loss to the Predators. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Saros did a pretty good job to sell it,\u201d Roy said. \u201cThrew the blocker and everything. Might have an Oscar for that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders\u2019 play in the third was at least better than the second, insofar as they weren\u2019t bleeding chances throughout. But they remained sloppy with the puck and finally, it cost them.<\/p>\n
With the teams skating at four-on-four, Ryan Pulock accidentally skated the puck out of the zone while trying to go across the blue line and was caught offside \u2014 somehow not the only time the Islanders committed that mindless error on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Following the ensuing faceoff, Josi\u2019s snipe beat Sorokin with 1:45 to go in the game, handing the Predators a 4-3 lead they took to the bank.<\/p>\n
The Islanders immediately felt the standings consequences of the loss, with the Penguins pulling two points ahead thanks to their win over the Rangers and the Capitals within four after beating the Hurricanes. Having frittered this one away, they were left to ponder the wreckage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we could\u2019ve done a better job using the middle,\u201d Pelech said. \u201cFelt like a lot of times we get past one guy and we just couldn\u2019t make the next play. They came hard, but at the same time, we gotta communicate more. We have to execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders fight for the puck during their Jan. 31 loss to the Predators. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n
At the start of the night, the Islanders had a juiced-up home crowd believing they\u2019d march to an easy win.<\/p>\n
Mathew Barzal opened the scoring just 89 seconds into the game with a bizarre-looking goal that saw him hit Anthony Duclair\u2019s rebound out of the air before the puck caromed off the post, off Juuse Saros and in.<\/p>\n
The Islanders looked poised to blow out the Predators a few minutes later after Matthew Schaefer followed up a few dominant shifts with his 15th goal of the season, a laser from the left circle to make it 2-0.<\/p>\n
As quickly as the momentum had built, it dissipated. Filip Forsberg pulled Nashville within 2-1 with a power-play goal at the 9:59 mark and just under three minutes later, Matthew Wood made Schaefer pay for a turnover behind his own net with a one-timer to tie the game.<\/p>\n
Jean-Gabriel Pageau\u2019s goal off the rush at 7:21 of the second put the Islanders back in front, but it was only a brief reprieve. Forsberg\u2019s second goal of the night, a shot from the left post that sputtered over the line, was the only blemish on Sorokin\u2019s record in an otherwise flawless second period.<\/p>\n
The goaltender was the only thing keeping the Islanders in the game in the second, stopping 22 shots over 20 minutes including a terrific save on Michael Bunting in front.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t clearing pucks. We weren\u2019t getting the blocks we wanted. They played a good offensive game in the zone tonight,\u201d Lee sad. \u201cOver 60 minutes, it wore on us. We weren\u2019t able to break it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islanders played a terrific six minutes Saturday night. Unfortunately for them, there were 54 minutes left after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,374,231,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-439457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-matthew-schaefer","11":"tag-nashville-predators","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-islanders","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkislanders","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115994273313402364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}