NY Islanders let three leads slip away in shootout loss to Boston Bruins

The New York Islanders saw leads slip away three separate times, falling 4-3 in a shootout to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.

Marat Khusnutdinov tied the game with 4:54 left in regulation — carrying a rebound around a sprawling Ilya Sorokin — before sealing the win for Boston in the shootout’s third round. Sorokin finished with 23 saves, while Jeremy Swayman stopped 27 shots and denied Simon Holmstrom, Bo Horvat, and Jonathan Drouin in the shootout.

Despite the loss, Horvat stayed red-hot with two goals, including the go-ahead tally 5:05 into the third. “He’s got a hot stick,” captain Anders Lee said. “He has an ability to create a shot on his own, and he can rip it. Those were some big goals for us… When he’s rolling like that, that’s huge for our team.”

Anthony Duclair snapped a five-game goal drought to open the scoring at 5:11 of the second period, spinning from the left circle and surprising Swayman. “We got some good opportunities,” Duclair said. “I thought our line did the best we could… making sure our game is staying simple and making sure we’re hard on the forecheck. We want to be trustworthy.”

Midway through the second, tempers flared when Nikita Zadorov cross-checked rookie Matthew Schaefer, prompting Duclair and Lee to come to his defense. “I felt like the referee had a lot of choices,” coach Patrick Roy said. “He could call cross-check, could have called roughing… But I loved how the guys jumped in. The reaction of our guys, that’s what you’re looking for.”

The loss snapped the Islanders’ two-game winning streak, but they’ve earned points in three of their last four contests.