Islanders fall to Kraken on late third-period goal as point streak is snapped

SEATTLE — Patrick Roy was angry. Not because his Islanders lost and not because of how they played. “We played a strong game.” No, the Hall of Fame goalie was upset because he’s unsure what is and what is not goalie interference.

“That we got robbed?” the coach said, answering a question that hadn’t been asked. “Yeah.”

The Islanders had their season-best, five-game point streak snapped with a 3-2 loss to the Kraken on Saturday afternoon at Climate Pledge Arena. Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored the winner from the point at 16:47 of the third period, a shot that deflected off the Islanders’ Brock Nelson and past goalie Ilya Sorokin (24 saves) after he had been bumped by the Kraken’s Brandon Tanev.

Roy challenged for goalie interference but the goal stood. And Roy didn’t like the explanation.

“It was a funny one,” Roy said. “It was not enough. He said there was not enough. [Tanev] went in [to the crease] by himself. He bumped into our goalie while the puck was coming. Apparently there’s enough and not enough in our league.”

“We had a chance to win but an unlucky goal, the third goal,” said Sorokin, who admitted he was off balance after being bumped by Tanev. “We can’t change anything.”

The Islanders (7-7-4), on the third stop of a five-game road trip, had entered the match on a 3-0-2 run after Thursday’s 5-2 win in Vancouver which represented their best 60-minute effort of the season.

The Islanders took a 2-1 lead on Brock Nelson’s shorthanded rush at 4:49 of the third period as the puck slowly rolled past a prone Joey Daccord (22 saves).

But Daccord preserved the Kraken’s win by denying a second shorthanded rush by Nelson at 18:10 of the third period.

“You get the lead in the third, you want to try and get back and roll into more sustainable momentum,” Nelson said.

Nelson also took some blame for not fully blocking Oleksiak’s shot before it got to Sorokin. Like Roy, he was confused as to why it wasn’t goalie interference.

“It feels like there’s quite a few different interpretations of goalie interference between the league and the referees and the players,” Nelson said. “We thought he was in the crease without being pushed in by one of our guys and he made contact. I guess they deemed it not to be enough to be interference.”

Jared McCann lifted a wrist shot off the rush to tie it at 2-2 at 5:26 of the third period.

“The first two periods, it was a tight game,” said Casey Cizikas, who missed 10 minutes in the third period while clearing medical testing after taking a high hit from Eeli Tolvanen at 5:02. “We had our chances and they had theirs. We gave ourselves a chance with that shorthanded goal. At the end of the day, these are the games that you’ve got to come away with at least one point.”

Pierre Engvall scored in back-to-back games — his first two goals of the season after being sent to the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport following a poor training camp — with both scores coming off rebounds. This time, Engvall knocked in the rebound of defenseman Ryan Pulock’s initial shot to tie it at 1-1 at 13:38 of the first period.

Yanni Gourde, whose shorthanded goal was the difference in the Islanders 1-0 Game 7 loss to the Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals in 2021, had given the Kraken (9-8-1) a 1-0 lead at 8:10 after Tanev’s shot went in off his body as he battled defenseman Isaiah George for position at the crease.

“I loved my team tonight,” Roy said. “We played a solid road game. I thought we possessed the puck. I thought we defended well.”

Notes & quotes: Nelson’s grandfather, Bill Christian, who helped lead Team USA to the gold medal in the 1960 Winter Olympics, was in attendance. “It was special to have him here,” Nelson said . . . Sorokin was denied for a third time his 100th NHL regular-season victory…Forward Hudson Fasching remained a healthy scratch . . . Kraken captain Jordan Eberle, who played for the Islanders from 2017-2021 before being selected in the expansion draft, was not available after getting hurt in Thursday’s 3-1 win over Chicago . . . The Islanders next face the Flames on Tuesday night.

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.