Islanders Fall In The Shootout, Lose a Winnable Game in Nashville

The New York Islanders took on the Nashville Predators early on Saturday, a 1:30 pm Eastern Time start and a 12:30 pm local time start in Nashville. Neither team needed a spark though as they each came out with 11 shots each in a feisty period.

For whatever reason Mattias Ekholm was public enemy number one today as he was around in after whistle scrums all day long. Neither team was able to break through for most of the period until the Isles went to the power play.

How about that? A perfectly executed power play. The Islanders needed that as they’ve struggled on the power play so far to start off this 2021-2022 season. In the second, Tanner Jeannot scored on a beautiful shot that just snuck in under the arm of Ilya Sorokin.

At that point, the Isles had all the momentum so it was a little deflating for that one to go in. Yet again, the power play would come into play as Oliver Wahlstrom would rip one past Juuse Saros top shelf.

Just an unbelievable rip from Wahlstrom who now has four in seven games for New York. It was a dominant period for the Islanders as they outshot Nashville 15-5 in the period and they went into period three with the lead.

The third frame wasn’t as kind to the Islanders. In a sequence where Zdeno Chara lost his stick, the Predators were able to capitalize when Tanner Jeannot, again, was able to squeak one past Sorokin which may have gone off Ryan Pulock’s leg.

Talk about deflating. Alexandre Carrier would go off for a cross-check on Oliver Wahlstrom but this time the special teams couldn’t get the job done. They ended up two for four on the power play and killed all four of Nashville’s opportunities.

This game would need overtime, as it was 2-2 after regulation. It wasn’t the prettiest of overtime periods, but a timely Ilya Sorokin save extended this to a shootout. In the shootout, Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi scored to get the extra point for Nashville.

The Isles extend their point streak to five, but this really should’ve been a two-point day for this team. They play in Montreal next, on Thursday.