New York Islanders Lose 2-1 to Controversial Overtime Call (Highlights)

The New York Islanders played a great game against the Boston Bruins, but a bad call in overtime cost the Isles an extra point.

Last season the Boston Bruins were undefeated in three games against the New York Islanders. They outscored the Isles 13-4. Clearly, the Boston Bruins were very comfortable versus the Isles.

This season the the Bruins are still a good team with a 13-7-4 record. But the Isles are catching the B’s at a great time with a slew of top tier players out with injury.

Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, and Charlie McAvoy are all on the Bruins LTIR. The time was now to get a result.

First Period

The New York Islanders showed up against the Boston Bruins right from puck drop. For large portions of the first period the Islanders had the Bruins hemmed into their own zone.

Halfway through the period, after

Mathew Barzal

did what Mathew Barzal does in drawing a penalty,

Anders Lee

does what Anders Lee does; he scored a goal.

Anthony Beauvillier took a slapshot to the skate going down hard and missed most of the period. But thankfully, he was back for the second period.

Second Period

The Isles did very little in the second period. Again they got a power play and did absolutely nothing with it. What else is new?

The Bruins on the other hand wasted little time in using their power play to generate some offense. It took the Bruins 26 seconds on the power play to get the puck in the net.

With some quick passes the Bruins easily pulled Isles defenders out of position and created havoc in the Isles zone. Leading to David Pasternak feeding Brad Marchand who connects for the the one-timer. 1-1.

Third Period

If you wanted to see back-and-forth-hockey you were watching the right game. Both teams were trading opportunities in the third period as the puck ran up and down the ice.

The Bruins first good chance came from a Jordan Eberle giveaway in the neutral zone. Only Scott Mayfield stood in the way of a tap in and the big 6’5″ blue liner stretched out to deny the opportunity.

Robin Lehner would be called upon a few minutes later. The big shot stopper would step up big for his team making this outstanding stop.

The deadlock wouldn’t be broken and the game would head to overtime. At least the New York Islanders would manage the game and get the point.

Overtime

The New York Islanders were robbed of an overtime goal.

Beauvillier was driving to the net when a Jake DeBrusk stick cut off any possibility of him stopping. He and DeBrusk end up in the net preventing Tukka Rask from stopping a Mathew Barzal game winning goal.

The goal was waved off on the ice and after review the cal on the ice stood. An absolute travesty. That goal should have counted. DeBrusk is the reason Beauvillier was in the net.

After trading a few chances the game went to a shootout.

Shootout

The Islanders decided they wanted to shoot five-hole on Rask so that’s all they did. They didn’t do anything to open the five hole mind you. They just shot right at him without so much of a head-fake, pump-fake, deek. Nothing.

All four Islanders shooters did the exact same thing. And all four shooters had their efforts stopped.

The stalemate was finally broken by Ryan Donato for the 2-1 Bruins win.

The New York Islanders played a pretty good game. They deserved a better outcome. They should have at least won it in overtime. If not for the refs they would have.

But at least the New York Islanders earned a point.

Three Stars

1. Mathew Barzal: 1 “Goal”, 1 Assist

Barzal was a man possessed tonight. He did everything he needed to do to help his team on the night. Again, that goal should have stood as the game winner.

2.  Robin Lehner: 0.972SV%

He let in a single goal on 36 shots. That’s the Robin Lehner we’ve seen since the start of the season. It’s good to see that he’s back.

3. Ryan Pulock

He didn’t put up any points but Ryan Pulock has perhaps his best defensive game of the season against the Bruins.