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The Skid Begins Anew? Stars Lose 4-2 to Islanders

The Dallas Stars visited the New York Islanders in the early afternoon on Long Island for the first time since the club moved from Nassau Arena in 2014. It’s the first of two games against the Islanders this season.

With Braden Holtby out with a lingering lower-body injury, Jake Oettinger was in net against Islanders’ netminder, Semyon Varlamov. The Stars continue to be without Miro Heiskanen, who is out indefinitely with mono.

The Islanders have had an up and down season, but are currently 21 points out of a playoff spot. It’s likely they will miss the post-season for the first time in four years. The Stars, meanwhile, are still thick in the bubble battle for that wild card spot.

First Period

The first period began on a lot of pressure from the Stars. Most of the first five minutes was played in the Islanders end. The first shot on goal for the Islanders came six minutes in on a turnover from John Klingberg, but the Islanders made a mess of the breakaway, missing crucial passes they would have had to land to make any real effort at a goal.

Possession and shots on goal picked up for the Islanders towards the last five minutes of the first, but both teams remained scoreless.

Shots: Stars 12, Islanders 8
Goals: Stars 0, Islanders 0

Second Period

Islanders score through a screen

Honestly, it’s probably best that no one attempted to stop that one.

The Islanders took the first penalty of the game, a slashing penalty by Anders Lee on Jacob Peterson. It was a weird one, Peterson ended up skating off with Lee’s stick stuck under his arm. Either way, Stars ended up on a power play but weren’t able to do much with the man-advantage.

Then Alexander Radulov took a holding penalty against Casey Cizikas, but the Islanders didn’t do much more than the Stars did with their power-play.

In the last two minutes of the period the Peterson entered the Islanders end with Denis Gurianov, who scored off a beautiful feed from Peterson.

Shots: Stars 22, Islanders 15
Goals: Stars 1, Islanders 1

Third Period

The Islanders had an early power play on an interference call against Radek Faksa, during which Brock Nelson scored his first of the night on a weird bounce over Oettinger. It’s a bad goal on Oettinger, he wasn’t screened and had no idea where the puck was.

Less than a minute later, Nelson scored again, bringing the Stars’ deficit to two.

The Stars get another power-play opportunity when Kyle Palmieri takes a holding penalty against Esa Lindell, but the Stars again weren’t able to do much with it.

With just over eight minutes left in the game, Stars play-by-play announcer Josh Bogorad says “the Stars need a hero.” Almost as soon as he finished the statement, Tyler Seguin picks up the puck along the boards and passes it out front to Jacob Peterson, who was alone in front of Varlamov.

After which, Darryl Reaugh said the Stars are like cockroaches, you just can’t kill them. He’s wrong, but it was a funny sentiment anyway.

With less than a minute left, the Stars pull Oettinger and put offensive powerhouse Ryan Suter on the ice for the sixth attacker. Needless to say, Brock Nelson scores his third of the night on the empty net to complete his hat trick.

Shots: Stars 39, Islanders 25
Goals: Stars 2, Islands 4

The Stars will finish out the road trip against the Washington Capitals tomorrow afternoon. Puck drop will be at 4 pm CDT.

Talking Points