Islanders see benefit of grabbing early lead against Flames
The New York Islanders finally learned Friday night they can't always come back and win after falling behind by multiple goals.
But the Islanders won't have to wait long to try a new approach Saturday night, when they host the Calgary Flames in the final clash of the season between the teams in Elmont, N.Y.
The Islanders opened the back-to-back home set against Pacific Division foes on Friday night, when they fell to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2. The Flames last played Thursday, when they continued an Eastern Conference road trip by beating the New Jersey Devils, 5-4.
The Islanders fell behind 3-0 in the first period Friday before Emil Heineman sparked another comeback bid by scoring on a pair of redirects in the final two periods.
New York collected nine of the game's final 13 shots after Heineman scored his second goal 3:38 into the third but could not force overtime. Rookie Matthew Schaefer's shot with two seconds left was blocked by Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson.
With the loss, the Islanders fell to 5-3-0 since returning from the Olympic break. New York has overcome a multi-goal deficit in four of the victories.
The unsuccessful comeback attempt served as a reminder of the small margin of error for the Islanders, who missed a chance to move past the idle Pittsburgh Penguins into second place in the Metropolitan Division.
With 79 points each, the Islanders and Penguins are two points ahead of the fourth-place Columbus Blue Jackets in the race for the last two guaranteed playoff spots in the Metropolitan. They also are tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the top Eastern Conference wild card, one point ahead of the Boston Bruins.
"It wears on you having to come back all the time," said Islanders center Bo Horvat, who had the secondary assist on both of Heineman's goals. "We have to find ways to get leads and hold leads. Going down the stretch here like that's tough -- not only physically but mentally to keep having to come back in games like that."
Even in the less-competitive Western Conference, where the Kings (69 points) moved into the second wild card with the Friday win, the Flames are likely out of time to mount a comeback push into playoff contention.
Calgary has been playing from behind since starting the season with 11 losses in its first 13 games (2-9-2).
The Flames -- 31st in the NHL in points with 59, ahead of only the Vancouver Canucks -- will enter the Saturday game 10 points behind the Kings.
The wire-to-wire win on Thursday gives the Flames a chance Saturday to string together consecutive wins for just the third time since Jan. 1, a span in which they are 8-14-3.
"We want to play the right way every game and come out and play Flames style," said Calgary center Mikael Backlund, who collected the 600th point of his career by scoring the eventual game-winner early in the third period Thursday. "That's competing hard playing the right way. That's our main focus every night."