BUFFALO – The New York Islanders limped into town in a tailspin, having lost three straight games and scored just one goal in their last eight periods. They departed Friday filled with confidence after handing the Sabres a troubling 4-3 defeat.
Following two season-opening losses, the Sabres had found a groove, compiling a 4-2-1 mark in their next seven games. Sure, they hardly set the NHL on fire, but in these parts, a record like that illustrates progress.
Now, they’ve hit a rut. Monday’s 5-2 setback to the Florida Panthers can be excused a bit. The defending Stanley Cup champions pulled away late.
Friday’s mistake-filled loss before a crowd of 17,074 fans in KeyBank Center stings. If the Sabres want to climb up the standings and earn that elusive playoff berth, they must beat reeling opponents, especially at home.
They looked shaky from the get-go, as the Islanders nearly converted some early blunders.
The Sabres, however, opened the scoring on the power play 9:03 into the contest. Dylan Cozens, a center coach Lindy Ruff has shifted to right wing, recorded his first goal this season.
A relieved-looking Cozens raised his arms and smiled as teammates congratulated him.
Forty seconds later, Bo Horvat’s breakaway goal tied the game.
“Totally missed assignment on the first goal and, again, we left the middle of the ice on the fourth goal,” Ruff said. “Those are mistakes that are killing us. We score a goal and then we immediately give up a goal in the first period which … when you’ve got guys that are struggling and you’re thinking offense, eventually it’s going to bite you.”
Maxim Tsyplakov put the Islanders up for good 5:25 into the second period.
The Sabres, who play a road game tonight against the Detroit Red Wings, made things interesting, creeping within one goal twice after the Islanders went up two.
Ruff has put it on himself to clean up the Sabres’ mistakes. They’ve looked tighter at times this season, but they still have too many lapses and make many ill-advised decisions.
The Sabres broke down again in the third period, allowing Jean-Gabriel Pageau to restore the two-goal lead.
“I have to clean up, I have to clean up,” Ruff said. “That’s on me. I’ve got to clean up our play. We’ve been defending well, we had a focal point on making sure we stay around the front of the net and really, the first goal and the fourth goal are goals that just, they can’t happen. Can’t happen.”
The Islanders, having lost Mike Reilly and Adam Pelech to injuries, played much of the night with just four defensemen. Still, the Sabres hardly made life miserable for their depleted corps.
“They’ve got some big boys back there,” Ruff said. “We didn’t win enough battles. We got in, it was like one-and-done. I thought we had some players with 50-50 battles that we’ve got to be better on.”
Sabres winger Jason Zucker said: “I don’t think we were pushing hard enough. I think we got to be a little bit more aggressive on their D, make it a tougher night, chip every single puck in, make them move back and back and back again.”
Zucker tried to ignite the Sabres by fighting Olivier Wahlstrom in the second period.
“We needed a little bit of a boost, to be honest,” Zucker said.
Ruff said: “That sparks your team. I didn’t even see really what happened or what started it, just he got caught up in the emotion of the game, which is good.”
While it took some time, the Sabres got going in the third period. Zucker scored for the third straight game at 5:27, narrowing it to 3-2 just 26 seconds after he couldn’t convert a penalty shot on goalie Ilya Sorokin.
“He had a good night,” Ruff said. “He … was in on some big moments. He was in a lot more moments than a lot of other players were.”
Sabres defenseman Owen Power scored late with an extra attacker on the ice to make the final minute interesting.
Goalie Devon Levi made 32 saves in his first outing since Oct. 17. Center Tage Thompson’s third-period assist extended his point streak to a career-long eight games.
The Islanders received a scare in the second period when Reilly fell and hit his head on the ice when Sabres winger Jordan Greenway checked him cleanly into the boards.
A stretcher was wheeled on the ice as he was attended to. After a few minutes, he skated to the dressing room with help.
