As the Ottawa Senators recently demonstrated in their poor performance in San Jose, sometimes the better team doesn’t win.
On Sunday night, the Senators outshot the New York Islanders 31-13, and dominated at times, but they still lost 4-2. Isles goalie Ilya Sorokin was the difference in the game, making 29 saves. Anders Lee had a goal and an assist for New York, while Tim Stützle set up Ottawa’s goals, which came from Adam Gaudette and Josh Norris.
Gaudette’s 13th goal of the season came off a nice feed from Noah Gregor. That lead held up for about seven minutes before the Islanders responded with goals from Anders Lee and Kyle MacLean. Both scorers got to the front of Ottawa’s net and outbattled the Sens’ defensemen to score.
Despite being outshot 12-5 in the first period, the Islanders led 2-1 after one. But a Kyle Palmieri interference penalty carried over into the second period, and the Sens made him pay. Josh Norris evened the score with his third goal in as many games. His power play marker came off a gorgeous no-look pass from Drake Batherson.
That was it for the scoring in the second period, setting up a tight third period, tied at 2.
The Senators absolutely dominated the pace of play in the final frame, but Sorokin was outstanding. The two coaches took entirely different approaches with their best goalies. Both teams had played the previous day, and the Sens opted to give Linus Ullmark the night off. The Islanders went with Sorokin again, a decision made by Patrick Roy, whose instincts about goaltending are probably pretty solid.
After Norris had made Palmieri pay earlier for his penalty, Palmieri returned the favor. With seven minutes left in regulation, Norris went off for tripping, and Palmieri scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal on the ensuing power play. It was a memorable night for Palmieri, who had scored his 500th career point earlier in the game.
The Sens’ penalty kill hit rock bottom in this one. The Islanders have the worst power play percentage in the league at 11.5 percent, but they went 2 for 2 on Sunday against Ottawa.
Travis Green pulled his goalie early, and Bo Horvat sealed the game with an empty-net goal with 51 seconds left.
The Sens are now off until Wednesday when they host the Anaheim Ducks.
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