{"id":205468,"date":"2026-03-05T11:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/205468\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:15:18","slug":"islanders-overwhelmed-by-ducks-as-five-game-win-streak-snapped-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/205468\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders overwhelmed by Ducks as five-game win streak snapped"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Cutter Gauthier (61) scores on David Rittich for one of his two first-period goals in the Islanders’ 5-1 blowout loss to the Ducks on March 4, 2026 in Anaheim, Calif. , Image 2 shows Ondrej Palat passes the puck after getting pressured by Mason McTavish during the Islanders’ blowout road loss to the Ducks<\/p>\n

ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 The Islanders came back from two-goal deficits three times in a row following the Olympic break. They couldn\u2019t make it a fourth.<\/p>\n

Not on Wednesday night in Anaheim, where the Isles were out-physicaled and outplayed by the young and ever-impressive Ducks, falling 5-1 at the Honda Center minus Ryan Pulock to snap a five-game winning streak that spanned both sides of the three-week break.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Islanders had the edge in the shot count all night long, which belied how this game truly went.<\/p>\n

\"Cutter<\/p>\n

Cutter Gauthier (61) scores on David Rittich for one of his two first-period goals in the Islanders\u2019 5-1 blowout loss to the Ducks on March 4, 2026 in Anaheim, Calif. AP<\/p>\n

The Islanders\u2019 chances were largely on the outside, whereas Anaheim worked inside and below the hash marks, getting to the danger areas and establishing a forecheck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a lot of easy access to our zone,\u201d Matthew Schaefer said. \u201cI think if we ended it their and played in their D-Zone, I think it would\u2019ve been a bit better. I think it was pretty easy for them to get in their zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulock\u2019s absence with an upper-body injury, which is not expected to be for long, cast a shadow over this one from the start. Matthew Schaefer did not seem to click with Scott Mayfield as Pulock\u2019s replacement, and Patrick Roy quickly ceded to rotating through his six defensemen.<\/p>\n

The Islanders, though, never did seem to find satisfactory answers for Anaheim\u2019s top two lines, and in particular the trio of Chris Kreider, Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier \u2014 a handful all night long.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see how important [Pulock] is to our team,\u201d Patrick Roy said. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s always hard to lose one of your top Ds. But hey, we have to find ways to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Isles trailed 3-1 after the first, a relatively comfortable spot given their last three games, but the score stayed put through 40 minutes despite a trio of Islander power plays in the middle frame that produced next to nothing.<\/p>\n

It took just over two minutes of play in the third for Anaheim to strike a dagger in the notion of another comeback. Ryan Poehling poked in Ryan Strome\u2019s feed at the right post to make it 4-1, all but putting the game out of reach, just 2:11 into the third.<\/p>\n

David Rittich, who bailed the Islanders out a handful of times early in the game, has now allowed four goals in four of his last six starts, stopping 21 of 25 in this one.<\/p>\n

\"Ondrej<\/p>\n

Ondrej Palat passes the puck after getting pressured by Mason McTavish during the Islanders\u2019 blowout road loss to the Ducks. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The goaltender, though, was pulled with 8:34 to go in the game as Roy tried to push his team into a comeback. Instead, Frank Vatrano scored into the empty net to make it 5-1 and send the Honda Center crowd home with free chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had lots of shots but we got to find [the goalie\u2019s] weak spots in a way,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI think power play, too, we can have a little more shots. \u2026 I think if we had some more shots to the net, nice tips, good net presence, it would\u2019ve helped a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islanders did get on the board first when Anders Lee followed his own tipped shot on a power play, but gave it right back on the penalty kill when Gauthier\u2019s one-timer beat David Rittich at 12:56 of the period.<\/p>\n

Gauthier struck again, this time at five-on-five, a few minutes later off Leo Carlsson\u2019s feed on the rush, and Beckett Sennecke \u2014 the other star rookie on the ice Thursday \u2014 further extended the lead at the 18:40 mark, putting in Ian Moore\u2019s rebound after a tip from Mason McTavish.<\/p>\n

Struggles on breakouts are nothing new for the Islanders, but it\u2019s rare to see a team be as physically dominant as Anaheim was Wednesday. Schaefer, missing his usual partner, never seemed to get his game going, and aside from the odd shift here and there, neither did the Islanders\u2019 top line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had one line [Carlsson\u2019s] that was kind of hitting everything,\u201d Cal Ritchie said. \u201cAnd we struggled a bit against that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resilient as this team has been of late, a number of players said after the win over Florida on Sunday that the preference would be to not be down two goals at all.<\/p>\n

The Isles will need to take that goal into Thursday night\u2019s match against the Kings. They didn\u2019t accomplish it Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Cutter Gauthier (61) scores on David Rittich for one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,50823,1720,1717,1718,94411,6264,553,17084,1716,1721,13254,94951,94947,15954,94412,4860,94950,1606,94948,94949],"class_list":{"0":"post-205468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-anders-lee","12":"tag-beckett-sennecke","13":"tag-chris-kreider","14":"tag-cutter-gauthier","15":"tag-david-rittich","16":"tag-ducks","17":"tag-florida","18":"tag-frank-vatrano","19":"tag-leo-carlsson","20":"tag-mason-mctavish","21":"tag-matthew-schaefer","22":"tag-ondrej-palat","23":"tag-patrick-roy","24":"tag-ryan-poehling","25":"tag-ryan-pulock","26":"tag-ryan-strome","27":"tag-scott-mayfield","28":"tag-the-ducks","29":"tag-the-islanders","30":"tag-the-isles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}