Red Wings center J.T. Compher on 5-0 loss against Islanders
J.T. Compher said, “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to compete for two points tonight.”
Detroit — One team the Red Wings haven’t had much of an answer to this season are the New York Islanders.
That’s two games now the Wings have faced the Islanders, and haven’t been close in either, Thursday losing 5-0.
Completing a seven-game road trip with six victories, the Islanders (12-7-2) rolled to a 2-0 lead in the first period and never looked back, sending the Wings (12-8-1) to their first regulation time loss in five games.
The Islanders defeated the Wings, 7-2, earlier in the season on Long Island, and this game was almost equally dominating.
“You know the style you get when you play them and it’s going to be real hard to create, and then you turn pucks over and make bad reads and give up odd-man (rushes) and it looks like that,” forward J.T. Compher said.
The Wings had put together two quality, impressive victories after a disheartening loss Saturday to Buffalo when they blew a three-goal, second-period lead. But this game was another disappointment because they basically didn’t give themselves an opportunity to earn a victory.
BOX SCORE: Islanders 5, Red Wings 0
“I don’t have an answer,” coach Todd McLellan said. “It was disappointing, very disappointing. We had a lot of momentum coming into the game and we were out-executed, when we did get away clean we seemed to bobble (the puck) or double clutch it. The scoring opportunities we did have, we did nothing with.
“We give up two goals on faceoff coverage, that epitomizes the night, really.”
Max Shabanov (two goals, two assists) Calum Ritchie, Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat scored goals, while goaltender Ilya Sorokin stopped 25 shots for his second shutout this season.
“Their whole team had a good night,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “We didn’t win races. We were slow and give them credit, they played their game and we didn’t make it hard on them at all.”
Ritchie and Shabanov, on the fourth line, supplied the Islanders’ first-period offense and get New York rolling.
Ritchie opening the scoring with his second goal, the impressive rookie converting a nice feed from Shabanov off a rush at 6:46. Shabanov made it 2-0 after the Islanders won a faceoff, and the puck got worked to Shabanov near the slot at 14:54.
Barzal made it 3-0 at 3:19 of the second period, his seventh goal, capitalizing on some tough forechecking by the Islanders. Horvat extended the lead to 4-0 at 5:04, putting him in a tie with the NHL leaders with his 14th goal, after another Islanders faceoff win.
“We talked about it before the game and we go out and don’t execute on it (faceoff coverage),” Larkin said. “They’re a good faceoff team, they have real good centermen who dig in and they make plays off of it. It’s not plays we haven’t seen. But it sums up the whole night, we talk about it before we go out and it’s in the back of the net.”
Shabanov scored his second goal of the game, and third of the season, at 6:52 of the third period with a goal that’ll appear on all the highlight segments.
Shabanov split the Wings’ defense of Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson with some nifty puckhandling, then backhanded a shot past goaltender John Gibson.
It was another frustrating night for Gibson, as the Wings continue to have some of their weaker performances when Gibson is in net.
“Those are team goals, too,” said McLellan of the goals allowed Thursday. “It’s been hard for Gibby. He’s come to a new team later in his career, and he’s had to adjust and adapt to a coaching staff, styles, a new goalie coach, teammates, the way we play.
“But he’s working hard. He fits in. He’s every competitive. We haven’t given him our best game. All of us. The players that put the equipment on in front of him and who wear the suits on the bench.”
The inability to erase some of these types of games, and the mistakes are nagging the Wings, who remain atop the Atlantic Division standings.
“We’re still having nights when we give up the big mistakes and make it over and over again,” Compher said.
“Gibby had to come up with big saves throughout the game to keep it where it was (the score). We didn’t give ourselves a chance to compete for two points. You can play real hard in this league and not win and we didn’t even give ourselves a chance to do that.”
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
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