Islanders blow two-goal lead, fall to Canucks 6-5

New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert was direct after the team blew a two-goal lead and lost 6-5 to the Vancouver Canucks in UBS Arena on Thursday night.

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— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 10, 2023

“I saw a lot of mistakes being made, a lot of individual turnovers,” he fumed. “Twenty-three giveaways, you’re not going to win a hockey game doing that. There were plays that had to be made and we didn’t make them tonight.”

“It’s unacceptable at this point of the season.

“When you’re up two in a hockey game lat ein the second period and you don’t win the hockey game, you feel like you’ve let something slip away. There’s a certain amount of frustration in that.”

Playing against his former team, Anthony Beauvillier scored what proved to be the game-winning goal for the Canucks and snap Islanders’ four-game win streak.

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“We didn’t have enough push,” Horvat said. “Especially in the third. We knew they were going to come in a one-goal game. That’s the type of team that doesn’t quit. They’ve done that all year and we just weren’t ready to go in the third.”

Elias Pettersson scored twice in the third period and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Brock Boesser and Nils Aman also scored for the Canucks.

Collin Delia made 24 saves in the third game of a four-game trip to begin the second half of the season. J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes each had two assists.

Kyle Palmieri, Brock Nelson, Mathew Barzal and Noah Dobson scored for the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin finished with 28 saves as the Islanders’ four-game winning streak came to an end.