Mathew Barzal injured as Islanders are routed by Bruins
The Bruins' Jake DeBrusk scores against Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov during the first period of an NHL game Saturday in Boston. Credit: AP/Michael Dwyer
BOSTON — The Islanders were on short rest and shorthanded up front, even more so after top-line playmaker Mathew Barzal was injured early in the first period.
In that sense, a humbling 6-2 loss to the NHL-leading Bruins late Saturday afternoon at TD Garden might have been somewhat predictable. The deficit was three goals after the first period and the Bruins added three more goals on six shots in the second period against a shaky Semyon Varlamov.
“It seemed like every time we made a mistake, it ended up in the back of our net,” coach Lane Lambert said. “That team has the ability to do that. We didn’t make a ton of mistakes — three goals on six shots, the scoring chances throughout the game were fairly equal — but we came out on the wrong end of it. They just capitalized.”
The Islanders (28-24-7) had snapped a three-game losing streak by twice rallying from two-goal deficits in Friday night’s 5-4 win over the Penguins at UBS Arena. Only 22 hours separated the two faceoffs.
“It’s never easy to play on a short turnaround, but that’s not an excuse,” said Matt Martin, who capped the scoring at 13:42 of the third period. “For us, it was just managing the game a little better early on, which we didn’t do, myself included. Before you knew it, it was 3-0. Not an ideal situation to be in against the best team in the league in their building.”
The only positive for the Islanders on Saturday was that both the Penguins — whom the Islanders will face on Monday night in Pittsburgh — and the Panthers lost. Those teams are in close contention with the Islanders for the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card spots, though the Penguins have played four fewer games.
Varlamov made 21 saves and Linus Ullmark stopped 26 shots for the Bruins (42-8-5), who swept the three-game season series and improved to 23-2-3 at home.
“It’s not easy giving up so many goals,” said Varlamov, who played all three games against the Bruins this season. “It just felt like every shot they made, everything goes in.
“Of course I want to play better and make some big saves when the team needed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it tonight. Not the best game I’ve played.”
Ilya Sorokin made 41 saves Friday night and Lambert said switching goalies against the Bruins was not an option in order to rest Sorokin for his start on Monday night.
The Islanders already trailed 1-0 on Jake DeBrusk’s power-play goal at 2:19 of the first period — DeBrusk returned after a 17-game injury absence — when Barzal exited at 6:05 after absorbing a hard hit from Craig Smith along the wall four seconds earlier. The nature of the injury was not confirmed by the Islanders and Lambert did not provide details.
The Islanders already were without Jean-Gabriel Pageau (injured reserve, upper body) and Josh Bailey (upper body), who was hurt against the Penguins. Neither player is on this two-game trip.
Nick Foligno, open in the slot, trickled a shot through Varlamov for a 2-0 lead at 9:15 of the first period and Trent Frederic, open at the crease, tipped Charlie McAvoy’s feed for a 3-0 lead at 17:19 of the first period.
“Probably through the first half of the game, I don’t know if we were giving up a ton of Grade A chances,” said Kyle Palmieri, whose tip of Anders Lee’s feed brought the Islanders within 3-1 at 6:46 of the second period.
But Patrice Bergeron (with a four-on-four goal at 8:17), Frederic (with an unscreened shot from distance that Varlamov should have stopped at 11:30) and Paval Zacha at 18:31 allowed the Bruins to take a 6-1 lead into the third period.
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.
