The pair of two-goal comebacks the Islanders made last night will not mean much this season.
The Isles (18-36-3-4), who almost certainly will have the worst record in the league, still lost in a shootout, 5-4, to the Maple Leafs at Nassau Coliseum.
But the Islanders would like to think that sometime in the future – hopefully next season – games such as last night’s would pay dividends. That’s the hope of coach Scott Gordon.
“I’m not going to stop coaching,” Gordon said. “I expect the same of all the players, especially the guys who are going to be here next year.”
Players such as Mark Streit, who scored a third-period goal to cut Toronto’s lead to 4-3 11:29 into the third.
The Islanders started slowly and were down 1-0 just 1:27 into the match. They fell behind 2-0 57 seconds into the second, when Joey MacDonald allowed a short-handed goal to Dominic Moore.
But Gordon said he was pleased the team fought back from the slow start.
The Isles also were able to rally again later in the game. Jon Sim followed Streit’s goal with a slapshot of his own at 16:53 (the Isles’ third goal of the period, including a short-handed tally by Sean Bergenheim) and the Isles held on in overtime to force the shootout.
That shootout came without Brendan Witt, who received a game-misconduct for elbowing Niklas Hagman in the head 2:21 in the third.
Witt, who was without his stick, said the hit was accidental and apologized to Hagman. Witt will have a hearing with the league today, and, despite his confession, likely will be suspended.
“There are going to be repercussions,” Witt said. “They treat blows to the head seriously, and I’m fine with that.”
Despite the two rallies, the Isles couldn’t get it done in the shootout, because Jeff Tambellini was the only player able to score. Tambellini now has as many shootout goals (two) as goals during the rest of the season.
Former Islander Jason Blake scored and Tim Stapleton scored on consecutive attempts to secure the win for Toronto.
Nevertheless, the Isles were pleased with how they played.
“We won’t quit,” Sim said.
“We could have easily been deflated after the extended losing streak in December,” Gordon said. “But we came back from that and I expect that to continue.”
SHOOTOUT / SUM: P. 63 Leafs 5 Isles 4