Islanders drop game & home ice
EVERYTHING WAS set up for one more memory in Uniondale, but Cam Atkinson and the Blue Jackets swooped in and stole one from the home team.
The Islanders blew two third-period leads and coughed up home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, losing, 5-4, to the Blue Jackets in a shootout Saturday night in the Nassau Coliseum regular-season finale. The game featured six third-period goals — three by each team — and culminated in Atkinson’s shootout winner. But before Atkinson’s buzz kill, the Islanders seemingly had it won — twice.
“You’ve just got to execute better than the other team. It’s pretty simple,” John Tavares said. “You’ve got to do the right things with the puck and without it and you’ve got to make it tough on the other team to get their opportunities, score goals and get to the middle of the ice. We just gave a little bit too much room. They started to get their legs, get momentum and started to bring it. We had our chances, it’s just unfortunate.”
The evening was full of nostalgia, including a video message from former general manager Bill Torrey, a series of highlights from the building’s 43-year history and the ceremonial puck drop from Claire Arbour, the wife of legendary coach Al Arbour.
A wild third period started with goals from Eric Boulton and Tavares, who put the Isles (47-28-7, 101 points) up, 3-1, at 3:47. A freakish goal from Brandon Dubinsky and another score by Alexander Wennberg tied it for Columbus (42-35-5, 89). Nikolay Kulemin put the Isles back in front with 4:24 to play, but Scott Hartnell tied it again with 1:35 left to force overtime.
Kulemin had a chance to win it for the Isles in the shootout, but misses from him and Cal Clutterbuck coupled with tallies from Wennberg and Atkinson sent the Coliseum crowd home unhappy. The final insult came in Dallas when the Stars’ Jamie Benn scored a hat trick and added an assist with nine seconds to play against Nashville to vault him past Tavares (goal, assist) for the Art Ross Trophy. Benn finished with 87 points; Tavares with 86.
“We’re up 3-1 and we just have to stay focused, look around, make the simple plays and be smart with the puck and shut them down defensively,” Johnny Boychuk said. “We just had a couple of lapses and maybe a lucky goal there, but you can’t worry about that now. It’s time to stay focused on the next opponent.”
That next foe will be the Capitals, who will play host to the Isles in Washington for Game 1 on Wednesday or Thursday. The Isles could be missing one of their biggest weapons for the start of the series as Travis Hamonic, who was injured during Friday night’s win over the Penguins, was seen limping badly Saturday morning. His status is uncertain, but coach Jack Capuano sounded less than optimistic.
“We’ll figure out our health as we move forward. We’ve got a lot of decisions to make with our team and personnel (with) who’s going to play Game 1,” Capuano said.
“That’s going to be a difficult decision.” Fans salute Islanders during final regular-season game at Nassau Coliseum, where team will host at least two playoff games against Capitals.