Brock Nelson nets two goals, but Islanders open short homestand with lopsided loss vs. Canucks

The weather was the only difficult thing on Long Island for the Pacific Division-leading Canucks.

“They just played north,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “They played quickly. They closed on us quick. We just weren’t very good tonight in terms of moving pucks, playing quickly. As a result, we didn’t really generate a whole lot.”

The Islanders offered little resistance in a 5-2 loss on Tuesday night at UBS Arena to open a two-game homestand. Once the Canucks, playing on the second night of a back-to-back and with their backup goalie in net, took control late in the first period the Islanders had little time in the offensive zone, even less traffic at the Canucks’ crease and played with minimal physicality.

“They kept coming at us,” said defenseman Adam Pelech, who returned after a 20-game absence for an upper-body injury. “It wasn’t like they got a lead and backed off.”

While the Islanders (18-12-10) did get Pelech back, they had to play without sparkplug fourth-line center Casey Cizikas for essentially the final two periods after he blocked a shot and was unable to put weight on his left leg. Lambert offered no update on Cizikas after the game.

Brock Nelson scored twice but Ilya Sorokin, starting for the eighth time in 10 games, was not his usual sharp self in stopping 29 shots. Casey DeSmith made 18 saves for the Canucks (27-11-3), who also beat the Rangers 6-3 on Monday night and swept through the New York/New Jersey area with three wins by an aggregate score of 17-9.

“Just not as clean and as quick to get up through the neutral zone,” said Nelson, whose power-play one-timer from the right circle at 11:11 brought the Islanders within 3-1 while his second goal, from the high slot, cut the Canucks’ lead to 4-2 at 15:15 of the third period.

“They’re a very good team. You give them opportunities like that in quick transition, they’re one of the best offenses in the league. They’re going to make you pay. They did tonight.”

The Islanders killed any of their chances for momentum with untimely penalties.

The Canucks led 2-0 after a fast-paced first period that turned when Mathew Barzal was whistled for an offensive-zone trip against defenseman Nikita Zadorov at 14:10.

The Islanders killed off the penalty but defenseman Filip Hronek, whose overtime goal sent the Islanders to a 4-3 loss in Vancouver on Nov. 15, made it 1-0 from the right circle at 16:25 with the Canucks essentially skating five-on-four. Seconds earlier, Cizikas blocked Hronek’s blue-line blast and remained on the ice, unable to put weight on his left leg.

Cizikas returned for two, short penalty-kill shifts early in the second period before exiting for good.

Defenseman Quinn Hughes made it 2-0 at 18:42 of the first period, skating into the slot to beat a screened Sorokin as the Islanders seemed to slow anticipating an offside call.

The Canucks tacked on two more goals in the second period as the Islanders were outshot 17-4 after they spent most of the first 4:13 on the penalty kill. Elias Pettersson tapped in J.T. Miller’s feed at the right post for a 3-0 lead at 10:20 of the second period after Pelech turned the puck over near the crease.

A hooking call against Jean-Gabriel Pageau at 16:17 of the third period ended any chances of an Islanders’ comeback.

“I thought we were fine for the first 15 minutes,” Lambert said. “Took a penalty, they got momentum off the power play. To come out of that period down 2-0 was very difficult to swallow. Then we just couldn’t sustain anything.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.