NEW YORK _ Doug Weight wanted "crazed dogs," in his words, to come out for the Islanders in their Saturday afternoon matinee against the Blue Jackets. After a dismal loss on Thursday to the Jets, Weight wanted his team to play like one that's fighting for its playoff life.
He didn't see any of that until the third period, and then only briefly. The Islanders managed to eke out one point thanks to John Tavares' third-period goal, but they surrendered a 3-2 overtime decision on Cam Atkinson's winner at 1:19 of an ugly OT.
"It was probably the worst two periods I've seen in a year and a half," Weight said after his team edged back temporarily into a tie with the Maple Leafs for the final East playoff spot at 78 points, pending the Saturday night results of Leafs-Hawks and Lightning-Capitals. Tampa started the night at 77 points.
"I told them after the second, 'You should thank your lucky stars it's only 2-1 and you have a chance to win a game.' I was just disappointed with some guys who've had really good years."
Travis Hamonic's one-timer off a feed from Jason Chimera gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead after a period despite only five shots on Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, while Thomas Greiss had to stop 12. And the second was far, far worse.
As happened on Thursday against a far inferior Winnipeg team, the Islanders could not string two passes together in the second period. Dennis Seidenberg lost an edge and allowed Oliver Bjorkstrand in alone to beat Greiss a minute in and Columbus took the lead on Josh Anderson's backhand at 15:48.
The shots on goal were 16-8 in the second and the play was decidedly in the Islanders end. In their last five games, a 1-3-1 slide at the worst possible time of the season, the Islanders have been outscored 12-5 in the second period.
"We just haven't been as consistent as we'd like," Tavares said. "It certainly wasn't our best game."
The Islanders came to life a minute or so before the tying score, starting to generate more time and effort in the Columbus end. Tavares took a pass from Seidenberg along the blue line and threw a wrist shot through a crowd for his 27th of the year at 8:48 and that awoke something in the home side.
Brock Nelson rang a wrist shot off the post a minute later and the Islanders had the Blue Jackets clinging to the possibility of overtime the rest of the way. But in the three-on-three session, Josh Ho-Sang and Calvin de Haan both gave the puck away and Atkinson buried a feed from Brandon Dubinsky to end it.
Now the Islanders have three days without a game before facing the Rangers at Madison Square Garden and the Penguins in Pittsburgh, games against their two biggest rivals that will decide whether there are meaningful games among the final nine after that or whether the Isles, despite their furious run to get into the playoff race, will ultimately be watching to see whether Toronto or Tampa grab the last berth.
"I think what you take out of that is how we played in the third and how we need to play like that the rest of the way," Andrew Ladd said. "You need to feel what that desperation feels like and you just hope it's contagious as we get down the stretch."
