Islanders come up short in battle of first-place teams

CALGARY, Alberta — The Islanders tied it up in the third period, but Austin Czarnik and Johnny Gaudreau goals 29 seconds apart in the third period to lead the Flames to a 4-2 win over the Islanders in a battle of first-place teams on Wednesday night.

Mikael Backlund and former Islander Travis Hamonic also scored as Calgary won its third straight after a four-game skid. Mike Smith stopped 17 shots.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say it felt good,” Harmonic said. “So many good friends and so much fun and great memories on Long Island so to be able to put one in tonight, it obviously feels good.”

Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee scored for the Islanders, who had tied it earlier in the third after trailing 2-0 following one period. Thomas Greiss finished with 28 saves in the Isles’ third regulation loss in 16 games.

Lee tied it 1:19 into the third when he was left all alone in the slot and one-timed a pass by Jordan Eberle into the net before Smith could get across. It was Lee’s 20th of the season.

“We got a big ‘F.’ Failure. We had too many passengers,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “We were poor on our exits. We were poor on our execution. We were poor on our battles. We were poor on our races. We were poor.”

The Islanders’ lead over Washington atop the Metropolitan division remained at three points.

“We didn’t come out hard enough and that’s the bottom line,” Cizikas said. “I think we showed them a little too much respect.

“Down low in their own end I thought we gave too many pucks away. For a team that likes to get the puck down low and work it, we just couldn’t do that tonight. We have to have a short memory because we have a big one (Thursday against Edmonton).”

Czarnik put the Flames back ahead at 6:10 with his fifth of the season — and third in three games.

Just 8 seconds after the Islanders’ Nick Leddy was whistled for interference, Gaudreau made it 4-2 with his career high-tying 30th — snapping a nine-game goal-scoring drought.

Backlund opened the scoring just 5 minutes into the game on a 2-on-1. Michael Frolik sent a perfect saucer pass to Backlund’s tape as he cut to the net and neatly tucked the puck past Greiss for his 15th.

Hamonic then doubled the lead against his former team with just over 4 minutes left in the first. Bacjkynd sent the puck back back to the blue line after a faceoff win by Elias Lindholm and Hamonic sent a high shot past Greiss for his fifth.

The Islanders pulled to 2-1 at 9:51 of the second with Cizikas squirting the puck under Smith’s pads for his 16th. The sequence began with a TJ Brodie giveaway in front of the Calgary net.