Islanders handed controversy-filled loss to Stars as Casey Cizikas gets match penalty

This was the return to normal, and with it came the return to normal old controversies, normal old frustrations and normal old losses.Well, maybe not so normal a loss, since such a thing — you may have forgotten — is a rarity for these Islanders.This 4-3 defeat to the Stars on Sunday night at UBS Arena came with, and in no small part because of, one of those regular old Game 56 messes, this one after Casey Cizikas was hit with a match penalty for a hit to the head on Lian Bichsel at 13:26 of the second period.In addition to a whole lot of anger on the Islanders bench and an ejection (and potential suspension) for Cizikas, the subsequent Stars power play also triggered goals two and three of a Jason Robertson hat trick and a two-goal Islanders deficit that became decisive.For good measure, there was a goalie interference controversy after Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s apparent tying goal was waved off with 4:52 left due to Pierre Engvall pushing Matt Dumba into Jake Oettinger.That one, the Islanders were not so interested in litigating after the fact, with coach Patrick Roy conceding the call on Engvall was correct.The penalty on Cizikas, not so much.“I thought it hit the chest before the head,” Roy said.

“So it’s unfortunate to see someone be hurt, we don’t want to see that happening.But at the same time, I thought that was chest first.

That’s my opinion.”“We saw the replay on the bench there.We didn’t think it was high at all,” Anthony Duclair said.

“We thought it was a clean hit.”Kyle Palmieri struck back a mere seven seconds after Robertson opened his account to make it 2-1 to Dallas 8:48 into the second — taking Tony DeAngelo’s feed all the way and scoring off-balance — before the game was upended when Cizikas’ shoulder connected with Bichsel’s head a little over four minutes later.A subsequent three-minute power play for the Stars — reduced from five after Dumba was hit with an instigating call for fighting Cizikas — produ...