The victory didn’t come without the Islanders’ familiar woes, as they let a 2-0 and 3-2 leads slip, though they were able to pull out a win. Thursday marked the third time in the past two weeks the Isles saw a two-goal lead slip away, though they are 2-0-1 in those games. They’ve allowed teams to rally back from multi-goal deficits 15 times this season.
“Everyone makes a big deal of letting leads go but I mean, that’s what happens when you have the lead,” Roy said.
After the Isles built a two-goal advantage after the opening 20 minutes, the tide started to turn as the Red Wings began to gain momentum.
Olli Maatta got the Red Wings on the board with a one-timer that beat Sorokin at 5:04 of the second period. After getting through some sustained Detroit pressure in the second, the Red Wings struck early in the third as Patrick Kane beat JG Pageau in a race to the net and buried the game-tying goal 10 seconds into the third period. In doing so, Kane extended his point streak to 10 games (6G, 9A).
After the Islanders recovered a one goal advantage, the Red Wings bit back again, as Maatta had an open net to shoot at, beating a diving Sorokin to bury his second goal of the night at 10:49 of the third period.
That’s where the Isles ultimately steeled themselves, Barzal scored the fourth goal for the Islanders and Pierre Engvall buried the Islanders first empty netter of the season to recover from the two blown leads. While there were some dicey moments in the third, the Islanders improved to 19-1-6 in games where they had the lead after two periods.
