Bo Horvat<\/a> said. \u201cWhen it mattered most and we really needed to get the wins, we didn\u2019t get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\nDeBoer, despite not being on Long Island long, was frustrated for his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m disappointed,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cI know they were in a good spot a month ago, \u2026 [but] these guys have had a lot of stuff thrown at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadiens Scored Three Goals in 55 Seconds<\/p>\n
![\"NHL:](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NHL-Montreal-Canadiens-at-New-York-Islanders-28716868.jpg\")
Alexander Wohl-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The Islanders came out flying in the first half of the first period. They posted six of the first seven shots in the game and outshot Montreal \u2014 one of the best teams in the East \u2014 8-6 at five on five.<\/p>\n
But Montreal goalie Jacob Fowler kept the Isles off the board. The Habs found their game and held the Islanders to just six second-period shots.<\/p>\n
Sorokin kept New York even, making his best stop on Alexandre Texier. But Nick Suzuki broke the ice, by re-directing Juraj Slafkovsky\u2019s pass into the vacant net, with 4:04 left in the second period. <\/p>\n
Then the dam broke. Matthew Schaefer took a high-sticking penalty on Cole Caufield, and Ivan Demidov tipped Suzuki\u2019s pass into a wide-open net, which made it 2-0.<\/p>\n
Alex Newhook capped the flurry when he took a pass from Zachary Bolduc and led a two-on-one break and beat Sorokin clean between the arm and his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the game, right?\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cSome self-inflicted things: the power-play goal, we gave up a two-on-one, then got on the wrong side of a little man-on-man in the D-zone. That\u2019s what a good team does, they expose you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders Pushed in the Third Period but Couldn\u2019t Beat Jacob Fowler<\/p>\n
![\"NHL:](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NHL-Montreal-Canadiens-at-New-York-Islanders-28717788.jpg\")
Alexander Wohl-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
To their credit, the Islanders pushed in the third period with their season on the line. <\/p>\n
Still, they didn\u2019t even find that second goal, even despite posting 3.66 Expected goals \u2014 2.09 of which were in the third period. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to win in this league with one goal,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cWe gotta find a way to convert some of these opportunities we\u2019re getting here into goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders outshot the Canadiens 17-3 and had more high-danger scoring chances in the third by an 8-2 margin. Yet, Fowler was awesome over the final 20 minutes, making 16 third-period saves and 30 in the game.<\/p>\n
Isles players put the onus on themselves to score more and lamented the fact they didn\u2019t. The third period Sunday was a microcosm of their final seven games.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, we need to put the puck in the net, including myself, in order to win hockey games,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t do it down the stretch here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t![\"avatar\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774746866_983_Pat-PickensBio.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\tPat Pickens is an award-winning sports writer and author who has covered the NHL since 2013. He has covered … More about Pat Pickens<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Islanders were eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention with a 4-1 loss to the Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-551523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116395442063120278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551523","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=551523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"NHL:](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NHL-Montreal-Canadiens-at-New-York-Islanders-28717799.jpg\")
Alexander Wohl-Imagn Images<\/p>\n