Ducks struggle against Islanders in blowout loss
ANAHEIM –– The Ducks looked dapper as they donned custom 30th anniversary sneakers on their way into Honda Center on Sunday, but things got ugly with their skates on as they fell to pieces against the New York Islanders, who prevailed 6-1.
Their level of play was as low as the Islanders’ quality of chances was high in the first period, when the Islanders scored three goals, and the third period saw them slather on three more. New York has now won six consecutive games under Coach Patrick Roy while Greg Cronin’s crew has lost two in a row by a combined count of 12-3 after getting gut-punched by the Dallas Stars on Friday.
Alex Killorn scored for the fourth straight game and the fifth time in six outings to avert a shutout. Lukáš Dostál bore the brunt of a discombobulated night on the ice for the hosts, coming up with just 13 of 19 saves.
Brock Nelson and Bo Horvat each recorded a goal and an assist. Kyle Palmieri, Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck and Pierre Engvall each found the nylon for New York, which also got two assists from Mathew Barzal. Semyon Varlamov stopped 22 shots.
“We gave them two breakaways. We gave them a tap-in goal. The first goal of the game is completely unacceptable,” Cronin said. “I don’t have an answer for it. At some point the room has to take ownership of the details that are critical for the team to have reliable success. We just fought with it. I’m beyond pissed off, I’m tired of talking about it.”
Trailing 3-1 at the second intermission, the Ducks may have had visions of a late push but instead got shoved around again by Islanders.
With 1:48 to play, New York’s fourth line got in on the act as Kyle MacLean earned his first career assist for his pass to Matt Martin, who set up Clutterbuck’s top-shelf tally.
“Every line had a goal. It showed the depth that we have, and it was important to find a way to win that game,” Roy said. “Sometimes you take those games for granted and it’s exactly what our guys did not do.”
Nearly eight minutes into the third period, Ben Meyers’ soft pass from behind the net that was destined for the blue line after banking off the sidewall was devoured by Engvall, who went the other way for an unassisted breakaway goal.
“It’s the mental mistakes that kind of eat away at you a little bit and that cost us more than one goal tonight,” defenseman Cam Fowler said.
The Islanders had scored 34 seconds into the frame when a pass from behind the net found Nelson near the left faceoff dot, where he wound up for a shot but instead passed the puck to the far post for an uncontested tap-in by Horvat.
Just 24 seconds into the second period, the Ducks had recouped a goal, the only one scored in the stanza. Radko Gudas blocked J.G. Pageau’s shot to key a counterattack. Max Jones transported the puck into the Islanders’ zone and made a drop pass for Killorn, who rifled in a wrist shot for his 12th goal of the campaign.
The Ducks found themselves trailing by two goals early in the contest and that was before they took three penalties in succession, leading to a third Islanders goal on the power play.
After killing off Gustav Lindström’s infraction, Killorn picked up a hooking minor 13 seconds later, which effectively turned into a double minor when he was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for his reaction to the call. New York scored once on the two penalties.
Its leading scorer Barzal initially mishandled a pass in the left circle, with his bobbling of the puck attracting two Ducks penalty killers. He threaded the needle on a pass to Nelson, who started and then finished a give-and-go play in the slot with Bo Horvat with 5:32 showing on the clock.
“There’s a reason why there’s a give-and-go, it’s because the giver doesn’t get hit,” Cronin said.
New York had already done damage at even strength, scoring 5:11 and 7:28 into the game.
Palmieri, the former Duck and Long Island native, made it 2-0. He received an ambitious three-line pass from Mike Reilly and then scored cheekily on a breakaway with a fake to his forehand before depositing the puck with a backhand tuck for goal No. 20 of 2023-24.
“Credit to him, I think he knocked it out of the air and stayed onside and went in and made a nice finish,” Fowler said. “It’s also something that, as a group, we have to be aware of, we can’t let guys get in behind us. That was another one that kind of got away from us.”
The Islanders had opened the scoring after Lindström and his defense partner Jackson reenacted a Benny Hill sketch in the defensive zone, turning a routine breakout into a scurried scramble that invited Simon Holmström to pounce on the puck and then find Cizikas between the circles for a skate-to-stick reception and an easy goal.
“The first goal they get, we had the puck, it was an innocent play, and we gave them a two on (none) in front of our net [after] we had full possession of the puck,” Cronin said.
In all, New York scored three goals on just six first-period shots.
“To me, that was like we got educated by an older, veteran team that knows how to win,” Cronin said.