Islanders Drop a Huge Point in Columbus, fall in Shootout

(Via ESPN)

For a while, it looked the Islanders had truly righted the ship.  Leading 3-1 on the road in Columbus, on the heels of an impressive come from behind victory days earlier against the Red Wings, Isles fans had to be thinking the team had turned the corner from its miserable month of March.

However, the same problems that have plagued the Isles throughout the poor stretch of play popped up again and the Islanders had to settle for what has to be viewed as an important, but ultimately painful one point from a game that should have been worth 2 points plus the added value of a win in regulation.

After an impressive 2 periods on both the offensive and defensive end, the Isles had a 2-1 advantage on the strength of solid goaltending by Jaroslav Halak after allowing a first period goal

, and goals from Eric Boulton and John Tavares.

The Islanders pushed it to a 2-goal lead when Ryan Strome found the net just 55 seconds into the third.

However, in what has become a typical Islander third period, all the bounces started going Columbus’s way.

Jack Johnson found a puck that bounced free and placed it into the net to get the Blue Jackets within one, and then they tied it when Halak couldn’t control a rebound late in the period and Ryan Johanssen pushed it under the pad of Halak to knot it at 3.

The Islanders had a massive power play opportunity with exactly 2 minutes to go in the game and despite having the puck for over 1:30 in the Jackets’ zone, could not push it passed Bobrowski who after struggling early on, slammed the door on New York through 19 minutes of the third, OT, and the subsequent shootout.

The OT belonged to the Jackets as they were awarded a power play which New York was able to kill off with some fine goaltending from Halak.

However, shootouts, which used to be one of the Islanders’ best moments, are quickly turning into nightmares for Jaro Halak and lately, Frans Nielsen as well.

Halak allowed 2 goals on 2 shots the second a painfully weak goal in which Mark Letestu made no attempt at a move yet squirted the puck past Halak.

Nielsen, who scores more than half the time in shootout attempts was denied for the second straight attempt by the glove of Bobrowski.  The Jacket goalie then stopped Kyle Okposo to deny the Islanders the second point they had held for most of the night.