The red hot New York Islanders last night had a shot to head into the All-Star break on a five-game point streak, but with the battle-tested Detroit Wed Wings prevailed, 4-2, in a hard-fought contest at Barclays Center.
The two teams entered the game with similar winning records and both had 47 points for the season, but with their scheduled game against Philadelphia postponed because of the snow storm over the weekend, the Isles looked a little sluggish.
Brock Nelson scored his team-leading 19th goal of the season in the first period for the Islanders with Mikhail Grabovski scoring the teams other goal in the third period, which made it a 3-2 game at that point.
“We had some chances, but couldn’t find the equalizer,” Nelson told reporters after the game. “If we had a little bit more time, we’d probably get it, but that’s the way it goes.”
The Islanders admittedly came out sluggish in the first period, and paid for it when the Red Wings Brad Richards scored on a power play sliding the puck past Jaroslav Halak at 10:57.
Coach Jack Capuano, seeing the sluggishness changed his line, which proved to be a solid move when John Tavares fed Nelson who slapped it home to knot up the game at 16:23.
But the Red Wings pushed back in the second period putting two goals past Jaroslav Halak (22 saves on 25 shots) 1:11 apart for a 3-1 lead.
In the final stanza, the Islanders kept the pressure on around the Red Wings net, but nothing went in until Grabovski scored a breakaway goal 4:48. After that, the Islanders attempts to keep the pressure on with another score failed and Luke Glendening iced the game with an empty-netter at 19:15.
The Islanders head into the All-Star Break with a 25-16-6 record. They won’t play again until Feb. 2, when they host the Minnesota Wild.
