The Islanders hung with the Stars in Dallas for two periods, erasing three one-goal deficits before Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson pulled the Stars away with two goals in a 5:35 span early in the third period.
Matthew Schaefer, Kyle Palmieri and Brayden Schenn got the Islanders goals to tie the game at various points, following frustrating sequences or bad bounces that put the Isles in a hole. They showed defensive cracks all night that the Stars consistently exploited.
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The Stars got on the board after the Islanders were buzzing in the Dallas zone and Jake Oettinger was without his stick. That made it sting all the more that Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin were allowed to counter the other way with a 2-on-1. Seguin shot instead of passing back, and I’m still not sure how his shot found a hole in Ilya Sorokin.
After Schaefer tied it on a rush and neat short-side shot over Oettinger, Schenn coughed up the puck behind the Islanders net to allow Robertson to come around and score point blank for his first of two goals on the night.
And after Kyle Palmieri tied it early in the second on the rebound of a heavy bounce off the end boards, the Stars got a similar bounce to allow Justin Hryckowian to regain the lead, 3-2, on a power play with Logan Stanley in the box.
Schenn’s equalizer on a nice feed from Anthony Duclair from behind the net, with 2:15 left in the middle period, was the last of the Isles’ scoring.
They went into the third on a high note after that equalizer, but again the Stars exposed and took advantage of them. What started as an odd-man rush became good zone possession that got the Islanders mixed up, allowing Johnston a free look in the slot to give the Stars the lead and ultimate game winner.
Then Robertson got his second of the game on a clearcut breakaway, with Adam Pelech and Tony DeAngelo in no position to prevent him after Bo Horvat was stripped while trying to split the Stars D.
Mikko Rantanen, who didn’t have Alex Romanov to shove into the boards this meeting, finished things off at 13:02.
Up Next
The road trip continues Tuesday night in Nashville, with a similar .500-ish team in the Predators.
