After taking six penalties in their 3-1 loss to the Wild on Thursday, the Islanders did little to hide their frustration with the officiating, particularly with regards to Scott Mayfield’s third-period delay of game call.
Mayfield knocked the Islanders’ net off its moorings after going into it, stopping play which led to the call at 6:33 of the final period. He disagreed with the decision in real time and claimed afterward that he was pushed into the net by a Wild player.
“I think [the referee] saw him push me in the net,” Mayfield said. “I don’t know if the net’s coming off easy or what, but I think it was pretty obvious, I just held myself up with the net. He thinks I pushed it off. … He made the judgment call, and that’s on him.”
The Islanders killed the ensuing penalty and ended up being perfect in five penalty kills on the night, but the amount of time spent in the box hurt their ability to establish rhythm offensively in the defeat.
Scott Mayfield, celebrating with teammates after scoring a first-period call, did not agree with a key delay of game call that went against him during the Islanders’ 3-1 loss to the Wild. Getty Images
“One of those nights where every little thing we did we were getting called for,” captain Anders Lee said. “Our killers had a great game, killed them off, Sorokie played phenomenal, we had an opportunity with half a period left to close it out.”
Added Mayfield: “I think they were calling a lot tonight. That just happens sometimes. It happens in games where there’s more penalties. I think we had one [penalty] the other night, so I don’t think it’s a discipline issue. It just happens.”
It did not help their cause on Thursday, when offense proved especially hard to come by. The Islanders got just 20 shots on Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson, and Minnesota outshot them 12-6 in the final period, scoring all three of their goals with under 10 minutes to go in the game.
“There wasn’t a lot of flow to the game,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought, when we stayed away from the box, I thought we generated some stuff. Certainly, you tax certain people when you’re killing a lot of penalties.”
Lambert said that as far as he was aware, Cal Clutterbuck did not aggravate the finger injury that saw him miss a hair over two weeks when he went to the room with just over two minutes to go in the game.
Adam Pelech took a major step forward in his recovery from a head injury Thursday, participating in an optional morning skate ahead of the match against the Wild. Kyle Palmieri, who traveled with the team last week, continued to skate with the group as well.
“He’s getting closer,” Lambert said of Pelech. “Whatever that closer might be.”
