The New York Islanders had nearly three full days to think about what could have been after squandering three one-goal leads against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
The Minnesota Wild won’t have to wait that long to get back on the ice after a similar experience Thursday.
The Islanders and Wild will look to get back in the win column Friday night when New York takes on Minnesota in the teams’ first meeting of the season in Elmont, NY.
The Islanders have been off since Tuesday when they fell to the visiting Bruins 4-3 in a shootout. The Wild will end a back-to-back series after squandering two one-goal leads in a 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The shootout loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Islanders, who outshot the Bruins 33-27 despite opening the game without a shot in the first 14 minutes. New York led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before Marat Khusnutdinov forced overtime with 4:54 remaining.
Khusnutdinov then scored the only goal of the shootout.
“We’re going to have nights where you play good hockey and you fail,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “Tonight was one of those games.”
The Islanders will look to break an early season trend Friday, when they complete a three-game homestand. New York’s first 12 games included four distinct stretches: a three-game skid to open the schedule, a four-game winning streak, a three-game series in which the team went 0-2-1 and now a 2-0-1 streak.
New York continues to receive contributions from its prized 18-year-old rookie, defenseman Matthew Schaefer. The No. 1 pick in this year’s draft recorded an assist Tuesday after scoring two goals in the previous game. He has five goals and six assists in 13 games.
Like the Islanders, the Wild had a two-game winning streak in their most recent game. However, the first month of the season has seen more declines than increases for Minnesota, which is one of six teams in the NHL – all in the Western Conference – with a points percentage below .500.
It was the ninth loss in 12 games (3-6-3) for the Wild since winning two of their first three. Minnesota’s 13 points are tied for third-fewest in the NHL.
Minnesota led 1-0 and 2-1 against Carolina before falling behind 3-2 late in the first half. Wild forward Matt Boldy scored the tying goal 37 seconds into the middle period, but the Hurricanes’ Nikolaj Ehlers broke the tie with the game-winner nine seconds later.
Minnesota never managed to equalize despite the Hurricanes dominating 14-6 in the third period.
“I played well, but I didn’t get the result we wanted,” said Boldy, who scored two goals. “It’s a step in the right direction, for sure. I’ve won two in a row and I thought our match was still going in the right direction. We’ll take the positives and learn from the negatives.”
–Field level media
