Takeaways: Islanders Show Fight, Come Up Just Short in Game 3 | NYHN+

Well, that game escalated quickly for the New York Islanders.

A five-goal third period with boatloads of penalties and skirmishes erupted at Nassau Coliseum, but even though the Islanders attempted a valiant comeback, they came up short as the Pittsburgh Penguins skated to a 5-4 win. Pittsburgh now holds a 2-1 series lead after taking the last two games.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit of puck luck,” Barry Trotz said after the game. “They got some bounces they went their way. We chased the game all day today. I thought we played pretty well. We didn’t give them a lot, but any time we gave them something, they scored.”

There’s a lot to dissect from this from this one so let’s take a deeper look.

Third period

Five goals. Fifteen penalties. All 10 players going off the ice at the 5:35 mark for penalties. There was non-stop action in the third period and it almost saw the Islanders make a comeback and end up on the right side.

By the end of the period, Cal Clutterbuck scored twice and Anthony Beauvillier notched a power-play goal as the Islanders offense finally awoke from a dormant slumber.

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But seemingly each time the Islanders scored, the Penguins would answer right back. Jeff Carter scored his second of the game to give the Pittsburgh a brief 4-3 lead before Clutterbuck tied things up with under six minutes to go. But just over two minutes later, Brandon Tanev batted a rebound out of midair to give Pittsburgh the edge for good.

Trotz noted how the Islanders couldn’t keep the game stable for any significant stretch.

“I thought we lost momentum every time we scored,” the head coach said. “We got it tied up on the power play and then we took a penalty and I looked at it again and that’s a pretty slight call. I thought Clutterbuck was in the white paint and sort of got his feet scooped and they have to protect the goalies, I understand. We had to kill the penalty and we didn’t.”

The Islanders had a great push in the third, recording over 57 percent of the total shot chances. And for the game, they again led in expected goals for. But again, they fell short on the scoreboard. In a short series it’s hard to change things quickly, but the Islanders do have some positives to look at heading into Game 4.

Varlamov a little shaky 

After a bad first period in Game 2, Semyon Varlamov righted the ship and made 43 saves on 45 shots. He wasn’t at his best when the Islanders needed him to be in this one, however.

He gave up five goals on 27 shots in this one, and there were a number of chances where he just looked out of position. When you hold a high-powered offense like Pittsburgh to under 30 shots, things should come out in your favor. They did not for the Islanders and Varlamov in this one.

Fourth line, Mayfield brings energy

Clutterbuck scored two goals, yes, but the whole fourth line played as a unit and truly felt like a spark plug that’d been missing from the last month from the season.

The fourth line generated the highest Corsi for from any of the lines on Thursday and obviously brought their usual physical play. Clutterbuck’s penalty did lead to Jeff Carter’s goal, but he did make up for it with a goal shortly after.

If you had penciled in Scott Mayfield in for a three-point night before the game had started, you’d probably get some stares. But Mayfield was involved in the offensive end all night, scoring the team’s first goal on a nifty move from the point before roofing a wrister. He then added two more assists to finish his game.

Getting contributions from the defense and bottom-six, especially if the top gunners are quiet, is paramount for the Islanders to stay in this series.