Islanders fortunate to sneak off with point in overtime loss to Oilers

EDMONTON, Alberta — This isn’t Ottawa anymore.The Islanders had a pleasant surprise of a three-game stretch heading into this road trip by netting five of six points and generally playing well despite a crushing set of injuries, but that challenge was nothing like the one they faced on Tuesday night in Edmonton.This was Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl; Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm; an Oilers team that might have started the season slowly but is packed with stars and won the Western Conference last season.The Islanders were not going to get through these guys as easily as they got through the Penguins and Senators.In fact, the Islanders weren’t going to get through them at all, suffering a 4-3 overtime loss on Draisaitl’s game-winner.

Really, the point the Islanders got by virtue of a late rally flattered them after a night spent largely in their own zone.Ilya Sorokin, along with some desperate defense in front of the goalie, kept them in it with 38 saves, but from the beginning it was clear that walking out of Rogers Place with two points would have constituted highway robbery.Thanks in no small measure to the goalie, the Islanders came into the final period with a chance to steal this one after Kyle Palmieri tied the game at one off Max Tsyplakov’s feed 15:58 into the second period.After Ryan Pulock blocked McDavid’s chance at the backdoor, the Islanders could not even clear the puck before Evan Bouchard beat Sorokin with a left-circle shot through traffic to make it 2-1.Then McDavid, closing in on 1,000 points and with assists on both of Edmonton’s first two goals, contributed a dazzling backhand finish after Oliver Wahlstrom turned the puck over trying to break out of the zone — point No.998 for No.

97.That looked like the backbreaker for the Islanders, but to their credit, they hung around.Anders Lee put in Ryan Pulock’s rebound at the 12:54 mark of the third to make it 3-2 and then struck again after an early pull of the goalie from P...