Брэндон Хагелийн хет-трик хийсэн тоглолтод Айлендерс 5-3-ын харьцаатай хожигдож, улирлын эхний томоохон сорилтоо давж чадсангүй.
UBS Аренад болсон тоглолтод Тампа Бэй Лайтнинг хурд болон ухаалаг тоглолтоороо илүүрхэж, 60 минутын турш тогтвортой байдлыг хадгалан өрсөлдөгчөө буулган авлаа. Тоглолтын туршид Айлендерс торгуулийн улмаас долоон минутаас илүү хугацааг хасагдсан бүрэлдэхүүнтэй өнгөрүүлсэн ч эцсийн мөч хүртэл өрсөлдөөнтэй тоглолтыг үзүүлсэн юм.
Хоёрдугаар үеэс эхлэн Айлендерс тоглолтын хэмнэлээ олж, Тони ДеАнжело гоол оруулснаар харьцааг 2-1 болгосон бол 19 настай Мэттью Шефер гоц ур чадвар гарган тооны харьцааг 3-2 болгож ойртуулсан. Үеийн төгсгөлд Мэттью Шеферийн дамжуулалтаар Брэйден Шенн гоол оруулснаар тоглолт 3-3-аар тэнцсэн ч шийдвэрлэх үед Тампа Бэй Лайтнинг давуу байдлаа эргүүлэн авчээ.
Тоглолтын төгсгөл рүү Брэндон Хагел 1:44 минутын хугацаа үлдээд байхад Илья Сорокины хаалганд гоол оруулж, удалгүй эзэнгүй хаалганд дахин нэг гоол хийснээр хет-трикээ гүйцээсэн байна. Дасгалжуулагч Пит ДеБурын зүгээс багтаа хэвшүүлэхийг зорьж буй тоглолтын сахилга бат, нарийн ширийн зүйлс дээр Тампа Бэй Лайтнинг илүү туршлагатай байлаа.
Адам Пелеч болон Райан Пулок нарын хамгаалалтын хослол Брэндон Хагел болон Жейк Гюнцель нарын эсрэг сул тоглож, эсрэг багийн гоолуудад нөлөөлсөн нь харамсалтай байв. Айлендерс тоглолт ахих тусам сайжирсан ч эхний 25 минутын турш гаргасан алдаа болон шайб эзэмшилтийн асуудлууд нь ялагдалд хүргэх гол шалтгаан боллоо.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
The Islanders liked the direction in which they were trending over the season’s first four games. Until Saturday, though, they had not been tested against a true contender.
Now they have, and while the Islanders can be happy with pieces of their game, the overall results won’t be to their liking.
The Lightning were faster and smarter. Mostly, Tampa Bay played a more complete 60 minutes than the Islanders in beating them 5-3 on Saturday night at UBS Arena on the back of Brandon Hagel’s hat trick.
Want to know why it’s so important to take care of business on nights like Thursday against Chicago or this coming Tuesday against Vancouver? Saturday is why.
It is a testament to their resilience as well as their penalty-killing on a night when the Islanders spent more than seven minutes in the box that they entered the late stages of the game still very much in it.
As has been the case a few times early this season, the Islanders grew into the game as it went on, finally starting to apply pressure and take away Andrei Vasilevskiy’s eyes in the second period. That resulted in Tony DeAngelo’s goal that made it 2-1, while Matthew Schaefer’s that made it 3-2 at 11:41 of the period may have been more about the 19-year-old’s supreme skill.
Schaefer’s first of his second season was one for the highlight reels as he walked the line, deked Anthony Cirelli clean and beat Vasilevskiy before an emphatic celebration.
At that point, Schaefer started to take over the game. His skill on the puck helped set up the game-tying goal with seven seconds left in the second period, as a juggling keep-in led to Brayden Schenn getting to Kyle Palmieri’s pass across, with Erik Cernak’s stick giving a last touch on the way into the net.
That gave way to a rollicking third, by far the most entertaining hockey the Islanders have played this season: end-to-end, physical, breathless.
With under two minutes to go, it was still deadlocked at 3-3, but the Lightning again had started to tilt the ice. It didn’t take a long offensive-zone shift to take the lead, though: Hagel beat Ilya Sorokin clean on an innocuous-looking shot from the right circle with 1:44 to go and then completed his hat trick into an empty net just 21 seconds later.
The details and ethic that head coach Pete DeBoer is trying, bit by bit, to instill in this team have long since been perfected by Jon Cooper’s squad. There were stretches during which the Islanders looked on Tampa’s level, but also, over 60 minutes, too many when they did not.
Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock, once a shutdown top pair in back-to-back conference finals against this team, epitomized it more than anyone. The duo, reunited in the wake of Alexander Romanov’s ACL tear, was badly victimized by Hagel, who skated through both of them to make it 2-0 Tampa late in the first, then a second time by Jake Guentzel, who was left free near the crease to score the Lightning’s third on the power play.
The puck management, an issue on which DeBoer has harped over the last few days, was an issue too, particularly early in the game as the Islanders’ breakouts consistently were stymied by their own decision-making.
Two things that seem contradictory but are not: It is an unequivocal positive that the Islanders got better throughout the game, and it is unacceptable — perhaps game-losing — that they took 25 or so minutes to look like they were in it.
That can be the difference on a night like this.
