MONTREAL — After a devastating defeat to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, the New York Islanders were punished by the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Saturday in a 6-3 loss.
Goaltender Ilya Sorokin’s brilliancy was not enough. He allowed six goals on 32 shots in what was an onslaught. David Rittich came in for relief, with Roy giving Sorokin some rest as he’ll start against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.
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Looking around the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins won in a shootout. The Blue Jackets won in regulation, while the Philadelphia Flyers also got a win to keep themselves in the playoff picture.
The Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings are still playing.
Here’s how the game unfolded.
Despite Juraj Slafkovskiy opening the scoring, an Emil Heineman snipe and a Simon Holmstrom breakaway tuck hand the Islanders on top.
However, a 2-1 lead quickly became a 3-2 deficit after the Canadiens scored twice in 1:19 in the middle frame. That was after the Islanders came out of the gates strong, going up 8-0.
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Rookie Matthew Schaefer did what he’s done all season, scoring a big-time goal on the power play at the 45-second mark of the third period to move within one goal of the rookie record for a defenseman:
But, less than three minutes later, Kaidan Guhle’s point shot deflected off Marc Gatcomb and past Sorokin, putting Montreal back on top 4-3 at 3:17 of the third.
Slafkovsky scored his second of the game at 8:07, giving Montreal a 5-3 lead. before Caufield’s second of the game made it 6-3 at the 11:20 mark of the final frame.
Caufield recorded the hat-trick on the power play at 14:59 of the third for a 7-3 final.
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“I think it slipped away in the second period, when we hit those two posts,” Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said postgame. “I thought that was the difference in the game, and we could have made it 3-1, and they scored that late goal in that second period on their power play. We tied the game. Unfortunately, it was a bad bounce on that fourth one, and from there, they just took over the game.”
The Islanders end their final road trip of the season with a 1-2-0 record.
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