The New York Islanders find themselves in a strange position as they conclude a three-game road trip with a visit to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Following a last-minute 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, New York is out of playoff position for the first time since Dec. 4.
The Islanders (39-25-5, 83 points) are one point behind the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. They are tied for third place in the Metropolitan Division with the surging Columbus Blue Jackets but have played one more game.
Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk banged in the winner with 12 seconds remaining to complete a third-period comeback.
“We’re a veteran group. We know how crucial this part of the year is,” Islanders forward Mathew Barzal said. “We’ll just turn the page. We have such big games coming up that we can’t let one unfortunate loss hurt us.”
The Canadiens (37-21-10, 84 points) suffered a similar fate Thursday when the Red Wings got the go-ahead goal with 3:25 left in a 3-1 win. Montreal is in third place in the Atlantic Division, tied with Boston and Detroit in points but with a game in hand.
Montreal, which has lost three of four, is opening a three-game homestand against teams in playoff contention — the Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes and Blue Jackets.
Against the Red Wings, Juraj Slafkovsky scored Montreal’s goal and Jakub Dobes made 25 saves.
“I thought we played a decent game,” Slafkovsky said. “We had many opportunities to score more goals than we did, we needed to do it. It was a nice hockey game to play in, but it just stinks we’re not the ones smiling right now.”
The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead late in the second period before the Red Wings tied it early in the third.
“We played a mature game,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We were in control of the game for a long time. It’s disappointing. In the moment, this game hurts.”
Slafkovsky is on a five-game point streak and has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his last nine games.
Forward Josh Anderson is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Matthew Schaefer and Brayden Schenn scored for the Islanders against Ottawa, and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves.
“We’re not happy that we lost the game in the last, what, 11 seconds,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “But we’re going to regroup and be ready for the Montreal game. That’s all it is. The way the standings are so close, so tight, it is very important to remain bold and focus on what we have to do.”
Schaefer, who had gone seven games without a goal to match his longest dry spell of the season, has 21 goals and 50 points. He needs two goals to tie the NHL record for a rookie defenseman (Brian Leetch, 23 in 1988-89).
Sorokin is 6-0-2 with a 1.83 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage in his career against the Canadiens. Dobes has never faced the Islanders.
