ELMONT, N.Y. — The Islanders continue to be plagued by inefficient third periods while allowing goals in bunches, yielding two goals in 42 seconds in the final frame on Tuesday night to lose 4-2 to the Minnesota Wild.
Kirill Kaprizov fired the game-winner on the power play 6:50 into the final period before Joel Eriksson-Ek put a bow on Minnesota’s victory with a wide-open wrister at the 7:32 mark.
The regulation loss ends the Islanders’ five-game point streak, though they lost two of the last three of those by squandering mult-goal third-period leads, first by allowing three goals in 3:58 to the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 30 before squandering a 3-1 advantage during the third on Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. Both developed into overtime losses.
Noah Dobson and Oliver Wahlstrom scored for the Islanders (5-3-3).
Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, who recorded shutouts in each of his previous two starts, was beaten just 19 seconds into the game by a Patrick Maroon one-timer that snuck over his shoulder.
Despite having a power play within the game’s first 180 seconds, the Islanders didn’t record a single shot on goal through the first eight minutes. But on their fourth shot of the night at the 11-minute mark of the period, Dobson equalized for the Islanders when he one-timed a slapshot past Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
His chance was created by a tenacious forecheck by Cal Clutterbuck, who took out a pair of Wild skaters behind the Minnesota net, allowing Casey Cizikas to pick up the loose puck, wheel around the net, and feed Dobson at the right dot.
The goal was already Dobson’s fourth of the season and his 11th point in 11 games so far.
The two sides traded goals once again in the second period. On the power play, Wahlstrom single-handedly put the Islanders ahead 8:34 into the frame when he split a pair of Wild defenders and roofed a wrist shot from the left circle for his first goal of the season.
Vinni Lettieri drew Minnesota…
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