Isles, Wings try to shore up issues ahead of matchup

The New York Islanders have been collecting points if not victories lately. They will wrap up a five-game road trip at Detroit on Thursday night.

The Islanders have at least one point in six of their last seven games (3-1-3), but they've lost four of their last five. A pair of those defeats came in overtime and their latest outing was decided by a shootout.

They had won their previous two shootouts, but Calgary pulled out a 2-1 win on Tuesday.

"It was a hard-fought game. I thought both teams played very well," head coach Patrick Roy said. "I look at it like it's a point, and I wish we had more than one point."

Most of the Islanders' contests are hard fought and low scoring. Only twice during their first 19 games has either side scored more than five goals.

Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov have been sharing goaltending duties.

Varlamov stopped 30 of 31 shots before the shootout on Tuesday. He has allowed two or fewer goals in his last four starts.

However, the offense stalled after Pierre Engvall's second-period tally.

"There wasn't a whole lot out there, both ways," defenseman Noah Dobson said. "In the third period, we had lots of great looks, just didn't capitalize. We've got to find a way to get that second one and extend the lead when we have those one-goal leads."

The Islanders will match up with the Red Wings twice in the next five nights. They'll play again on the Islanders' home ice on Monday night.

Their first meeting on Oct. 22 was a night of frustration for the Islanders. They had a 30-11 advantage in shots on goal but Detroit pulled out a 1-0 win as Patrick Kane's first-period goal stood up.

That was one of just three goals in 18 games for the future Hall of Famer this season, one reason why the Red Wings have a losing record. Detroit has won just one of its last six contests (1-4-1), with the lone victory coming in overtime against Pittsburgh on Nov. 13.

That contest began a four-game road trip. The Red Wings went 0-2-1 the rest of the journey, including a 5-4 overtime loss to San Jose on Monday.

"The whole game was missed opportunities," captain Dylan Larkin said. "We got one point (in the standings), but we could have had two and finished the road trip on a good note. We didn't do that."

The Sharks' Tyler Toffoli scored in the final minute of the second period to tie the game at 3. Wings coach Derek Lalonde felt that was the pivotal play.

"That one at the end of the period was a huge momentum goal," he said. "I give our guys credit to find a way to get a point on the road, but a big part of it was the momentum of that second-period goal."

Detroit has many issues to fix. The club has relied too much on their first line of Larkin, Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond, who are their top three scorers. They have been outshot in a vast majority of their games and their defense has sagged, allowing 15 goals in the last three contests.

Also, the Red Wings' penalty kill unit ranked last in the NHL at 66.7 percent, just ahead of the Islanders (67.5), entering Wednesday's action.

--Field Level Media