Islanders’ Cal Clutterbuck moves to Pageau line, gets goal and assist

It took just 10 minutes for coach Lane Lambert to elevate Cal Clutterbuck to the Islanders’ third line with center Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom in favor of Oliver Wahlstrom.

Clutterbuck responded with a goal and an assist in Tuesday night’s 7-4 loss to the Avalanche at UBS Arena, though Lambert said he made the first-period switch for defensive reasons to match Pageau’s line against Nathan MacKinnon’s top line with Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin.

“It wasn’t that Wahlly wasn’t necessarily not bringing anything,” Lambert said. “That wasn’t the decision at all. Cal’s an extremely intelligent player and that fit well for us. I thought they did a great job not only neutralizing for the most part but also chipping in on offense.”

Holmstrom also scored his first goal of the season.

Clutterbuck was also moved off Casey Cizikas’ line with Matt Martin to Pageau’s trio with Anders Lee in Saturday night’s 3-1 loss in Buffalo.

“I think our games mesh well,” Clutterbuck said. “It’s been a good opportunity.”

“I feel like every time we’ve played together, we’ve had good chemistry,” Pageau said. “He’s a pretty simple player that works hard and he’s easy to play with. I think he’s easy to read off of. It’s been working.”

Isles files

Defenseman Noah Dobson’s two assists extended his point streak to four games and right wing Mathew Barzal extended his point streak to four games with an assist … Martin logged just 5:31, sitting the final 6:29 of the second period and last 14:25 of the third period … Defenseman Scott Mayfield (lower body) missed his fourth game. Lambert said Mayfield skated on his own on Tuesday and clarified that when he said on Monday Mayfield was “trying” to skate, it did not indicate Mayfield had suffered a setback … Forwards Hudson Fasching and Julien Gauthier were the healthy scratches.