The Anaheim Ducks’ early-season spark has faded fast on this first East Coast trip, and Tuesday night brought another reminder of how thin the margin has become. A sluggish opening period in Elmont put Anaheim in a hole it couldn’t fully climb out of, and the New York Islanders escaped UBS Arena with a 3-2 win that handed the Ducks their fourth straight loss.
Anaheim, which had led after the first period in its first seven games, has now trailed from the start in both stops on this back-to-back set against the Rangers and Islanders. The Ducks never found that early control they had been building in the season’s opening stretch, and the Islanders made them pay.
Ondrej Palat got New York on the board first on a two-on-one, and Victor Eklund added another off a rebound for a 2-0 advantage. Simon Holmstrom later redirected a power play goal to make it 3-1 by the end of the opening period.
Anaheim’s response came from Frank Vatrano, who scored late in the first with help from AJ Greer and Leo Carlsson. That assist gave Carlsson his first five-on-five point since the season opener.
The Ducks did get within one again late. With Lukáš Dostál pulled for the extra attacker, Leo Carlsson set up Alex Killorn in the slot, and Killorn’s shot went in off Cutter Gauthier’s screen to trim the deficit to 3-2 with just over two minutes left. Mikael Granlund had one final chance in the closing seconds, but he couldn’t find the net.
Dostál finished with 22 saves on 25 shots in his seventh start in nine games. Ilya Sorokin stopped 15 shots for the Islanders.
Anaheim’s overall record fell to 4-5-0, good for eight points, as the club continues its four-game East Coast swing. The Ducks head to New Jersey on Thursday and close out the trip in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.
This game also brought more lineup shuffling for Anaheim. The Ducks came in with changes to all four forward lines and all three defensive pairs after a listless, jet-lagged night in Manhattan on Monday.
The Islanders took control after a sequence that started with Sorokin denying a clean one-timer from Carlsson to Gauthier. As the puck went the other way, Pavel Mintyukov jumped up and misplayed it at center ice, opening the door for New York’s rush. JG Pageau moved the puck across to Palat, who finished from the far side for the opening goal.
Three minutes later, New York doubled the lead on a bounce that went its way. Emil Heineman’s point shot was stopped in traffic, but the puck kicked off Eklund in front and into the open cage after Dostál slid left to challenge.
Anaheim answered quickly. Greer forced a turnover on the forecheck and fed Vatrano, who calmly went forehand-backhand to get the Ducks on the board and make it 2-1. But the momentum vanished almost immediately when Beckett Sennecke took a penalty on the next shift, and the Islanders capitalized before the period was over.
Anaheim’s first power play chance of the game vanished as well, undone by another Sennecke penalty. The Ducks, who had scored seven power play goals in their first six games, are now 0-for-10 over their last three.
The discipline issues kept piling up from there. Anaheim handed New York four power plays and has now done that in each of the last three games. The Ducks have also taken at least three penalties in every game this season.
After getting outplayed badly in the first period, Anaheim had a slight edge in the second, but nothing came of it. The third period was even tougher offensively, with the Ducks managing just two shots on goal through the first 15 minutes before that late push with the goalie out.
One notable stretch came on the back end, where Mintyukov did not play in the third period at all. His last shift ended with 3:08 left in the second.
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