The Upshot: NY Islanders Blow 21st Third Period Lead of the Season in 4-3 OT Loss to the Ottawa Senators

HOW IT HAPPENED

After the NY Islanders blew a 3rd period lead, Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk scored in overtime to complete the hattrick and give the Sens a 4-2 win. Matt Martin opened the scoring at UBS Arena with the first wrap around goal of his career, and third goal of the season. It was definitely a lucky goal that was definitely going wide, until it tipped off Sens forward Mathieu Joseph. After playing a strong first period, the Islanders came out asa new and worse team for the second period. Tkachuk scored his first goal of the game to tie it at 1 midway through the second. On an odd-man rush, JG Pageau spins a pass to a flying Kyle Palmieri, who shoots 5-hole passed Joonas Korpisalo giving the Isles a 2-1 lead heading into the third. Thanks to a bad defensive play by Adam Pelech, the Sens capitalized on a 2-on-0 to tie the game at two thanks to a goal by Ridily Greig. Notably, Tim Stutzle and Greig were able to get two passes through before Greig took the shot, just an embarrassing play from the Isles a great read by the Sens to capitalize.

despite two lucky or fleuky goals, puck luck was really against the Islanders tonight. After a bad turnover in the defensive zone, Noah Dobson panicked, sending the puck over the glass and taking a delay of game penalty with 8 minutes remaining. Tkatchuk once again capitalized, scoring his second goal of the game and first power play goal of the game for the 3-2 lead. Luckily, the Senators did mess up at least once this afternoon, with Joseph taking a penalty with 1:50 left in the third. with Semyon Varlamov pulled, the Isles were dominant for the first time all game with the man advantage. As the clock ticked down, the puck got to Bo Horvat in the slot, who wasted no time sniping one past Korpisalo. After tying the game with 37.2 seconds left, the game went into a very stressful overtime. With missed calls left and right, fans were shocked when the refs called an invisible holding call against Horvat, who broke his stick heading into the box. Tkatchuk once again capitalized on the man advantage and scored to end the extra time with just 24 seconds remaining. Varlamov made 26 saves, while Korpisalo made 30.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

After hearing Head Coach Patrick Roy's comments post game, not much can be said about the Islander's success of the night.

One thing the Islanders did well was opening the scoring and control play in the first. The momentum and control needs to carry into the second and third period, but they still played a solid first period.

WHAT WENT WRONG

I'll let Roy's comments speak for themselves....

"We didn't do a good job in the neutral zone. [We didn't] put that puck deep on the first goal, bad pinch on that second goal, we threw a puck in the stands on the third goal. And then, on the fourth goal, losing our edge and odd-man rush. I mean, come on. We are better than this. And we have to be better than this. I mean, we did a lot of good things. It's not enough at this time of the year if we want to win those big games, and that was a big game for us."

Roy specifically noted that the Islanders did wake up until fans at UBS started getting mad. "Our fans probably woke us up when they start to be pissed at us, and they had every right to be."

STATS OF THE GAME

The Islanders have blown 21 third period leads in 66 games this season.

Per NHL PR, Tkatchuk became the 3rd player in Senator's history to cap a hattrick in overtime

Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Islanders have now gone nine consecutive games without allowing a first period goal - tying a club record set 45 years ago (Dec 78-Jan 79).

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

WHAT'S NEXT

The NY Islanders will take on their biggest rivals in the NY Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop is at 1pm EST and will be aired on TNT.