OTTAWA, Ontario _ Upon reflection, maybe the Islanders were hoping the Ottawa Senators would have put Craig Anderson in a back-up role Saturday, rather than giving him the start.
Anderson made his first start in 69 days and turned aside 33 shots as the Senators blanked the Islanders, 3-0, at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Anderson left the club in early December to be with his wife Nicholle, who is battling cancer, and made his return to practice last week.
"It's a tough thing he's going through. I don't know him personally, but obviously you wish the best for him," the Islanders Josh Bailey said. "Obviously we didn't want him to get a shutout. We definitely need to be a little bit better but we still had a couple that could have gone in. They were more opportunistic than us and they found a way to capitalize on their chances, but all in all it wasn't a terrible game for us."
The shutout was the fourth of the season for Anderson in just 20 games.
"I got a little luck and we got a little luck at the other end. It's one of those nights where fate was in our favor," Anderson said. His wife is battling nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a form of head and neck cancer.
Mark Stone, Zack Smith and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Senators.
Thomas Greiss made 21 saves for the Islanders (24-19-10) in his eighth start in the past nine games. It was just the second regulation loss for the Islanders in their past 12 games.
John Tavares took a slashing penalty with two minutes to play in the third period as the Islanders finished the game killing a penalty.
"You have games like that but give credit to their goaltender," Andrew Ladd said. "We probably could have done a better job getting more pucks toward the net, but I think there's a lot of things that we liked about our game."
Stone opened the scoring at 4:10 of the first period, the benefactor of his own hard work, and a little luck. After stealing the puck from Alan Quine in the Islanders' zone, Stone fed Erik Karlsson. He missed the net with his shot but Stone followed up behind the net, collected the puck and banked a shot from behind the goal line off Greiss and in.
At 4:35 of the second period Smith gave the Senators a 2-0 lead. Kyle Turris sent Smith in alone and he moved the puck from his backhand to his forehand to beat Greiss.
A little less than three minutes later Pageau put the Senators up 3-0 when he redirected a pass from Tom Pyatt past Greiss at 7:12 just as an Islanders power play had expired.
"I still think we have to be positive," Tavares said. "I think we were the better team and I thought we generated more chances, I just don't think we were as good in front of the net as we have been. Anderson was obviously sharp and he controlled the rebounds really well."
