After a win in New Jersey Friday, the New York Islanders returned home to UBS Arena Saturday hoping to make it a back-to-back sweep facing the defending Stanley Cup champs, Florida Panthers.
The Islanders bursted out of the gate, and it looked as if it would be a jubilant Saturday night in Elmont, however, the Panthers showed why they are Stanley Cup champions, and scored six straight goals to defeat the Islanders 6-3.
Just over a minute into play Dennis Cholowski, playing in his first game of the season (Alexander Romanov – upper body), let a shot go from the blue line that found the top left corner of the net giving the home team an early 1-0 lead.
The goal was Cholowski’s first goal as an Islander and his first NHL goal since May 5, 2022 when he was a member of the Seattle Kraken.
Less than five minutes later, Kyle Palmieri doubled the Islanders lead. With the puck in the offensive zone, Palmieri and Maxim Tsyplakov combined to win a battle along the boards. Tsyplakov then cycled the puck around to Ryan Pulock who immediately fired it towards the net. The shot was well off line but Palmieri somehow got a piece of it and poked the rebound past Panthers goalie Spencer Knight who could not cover the original tip and the Isles had a 2-0 lead.
Palmieri now has four goals this season, and has scored in back-to-back games.
After a successful penalty kill, the second line did it again for the Islanders.
From the top of the circles, Tsyplakov shot and missed wide but the puck bounced off the end boards right to Brock Nelson alongside the net and he banked it in off the back of Knight giving New York a 3-0 lead.
The scoring was not done in the first just yet, as Sam Reinhart cut into the Islanders lead with seven minutes remaining in the period.
Cholowski turned the puck over to Eetu Luostarinen, who sprung Reinhart on a breakaway. Reinhart picked his spot and shot it past Semyon Varlamov for his sixth of the 2024-25 campaign and the Panthers now trailed only 3-1.
The second period started with no shortage of scoring chances as not even a minute in, Nelson found himself 1-on-1 with Knight but could not cash in.
The Panthers started to press and ended up scoring when a Carter Vergaeghe shot hit off the post. Matthew Tkachuk found the rebound, dug it from under Varlamov and we had a 3-2 game.
The rest of the period was fast, physical and saw many scoring chances traded between both teams. Breakaways, posts and an unsuccessful Islanders power play led to Mackie Samoskevich scoring his first career NHL goal on a wraparound.
Samoskevich flew into the zone, skated behind the net and got to the near post before the right pad of Varlamov did, tying the game at three.
Early in the third, the Islanders fell behind for the first time, as momentum continued to build against them.
With 13:41 remaining, Matthew Tkachuk sent a puck on net which Varlamov attempted to steer to the left corner — instead, it deflected off Sam Bennett, and into the net giving the Panthers a 4-3 lead.
Then, Florida made it five straight goals as they cashed in on the power play. Tkachuk scored his second of the year, converting on a Palmieri slash — and the Panthers led 5-3.
With 4:11 remaining in the third, Simon Holmstrom drew a power play for the Islanders as Aaron Ekblad went to the box for hooking.
Varlamov went to the bench to give the Islanders a two-man advantage, however Gustav Forsling would net a shorthanded goal firing the puck in an empty net to give the Panthers a 6-3 win.
The Islanders skate again Tuesday as they host the Anaheim Ducks at 7 PM at UBS Arena.
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