ELMONT, NY — The NHL’s Jets got a win in New York sooner than the NFL’s Jets, and it has kept the Islanders, like Gang Green, winless in this young season.
For a third straight game, the Islanders’ defense yielded at least four goals in a 5-2 loss to Winnipeg on Monday afternoon at UBS Arena as the team’s new identity under GM Mathieu Darche and head coach Patrick Roy is showing remarkable growing pains on the blue line.
“It’s just little mistakes,” defenseman Scott Mayfield said. “It seems like they’re capitalizing on a lot of them, whether we let a guy behind us, lose a guy out of the corner and in front of the net, pucks at the blue line, turnovers. It’s those little mistakes that are winding up in the back of our net. It’s hard when you’re down in games to grind back in. We’re trying.”
With it, the Islanders are 0-3-0 for the first time to start a season since 2006-07, and they made the playoffs. It is also the first time that they haven’t won in their first three games of a season for the first time since 2009-10, the last time they had the No. 1 pick the prior summer in John Tavares.
The 2025 No. 1 overall pick, Matthew Schaeffer, logged a game-high 26:35 and picked up an assist for his third NHL point in as many games this season.
Morgan Barron, Nino Neiderreiter, and Tanner Pearson each scored a goal and an assist in Winnipeg’s win, and backup netminder Eric Comrie stopped 33 shots.
The Islanders got goals from Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Emil Heineman. Ilya Sorokin was saddled with his third loss of the season, making 21 saves.
For a second straight game, the Islanders faced a multi-goal deficit after the Jets potted two in the opening period.
Despite a quicker start than Saturday’s home-opening 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals, the Islanders were cut open on the break by the Jets. Jean-Gabriel Pageau lost an edge and fell in the Winnipeg zone, sparking a 3-on-2 break from the visitors.
Entering the New York zone, Cole Koepke hit Barron, who was able to skate freely down the center of the ice between blue liners Alex Romanov and Tony DeAngelo, deke to the backhand, and pop his chance over the shoulder of Ilya Sorokin 7:35 into the game.
“I thought we had a great start and I think we had a great game,” Roy said. “…I thought we moved the puck very well. Their goalie was very good. He was a factor in this game.”
Just over four minutes later, the Jets had their second, which came on the power play. Gustav Nyquist’s cross-goal-line pass found the ex-Islander Neiderreiter at the left post. His shot was sailing across the goal mouth, but it was deflected in by Sorokin’s blocker.
Pageau halved the Islanders’ deficit just 2:05 into the second period to provide a glimpse of hope of a comeback. He redirected a point shot from DeAngelo into the roof of the net, but just 14 seconds later, the Jets re-opened a two-goal cushion when Logan Stanley’s wrister on a 3-on-1 slid under Sorokin’s pad — a softy by his standards.
“I don’t think it affected us,” Roy said. “We kept playing. It doesn’t matter if they score or not. The guys kept playing. That’s what I love about the group. They’re resilient.”
Winnipeg got a fourth after Romanov turned the puck over at its blue line. Neiderreiter, who just exited the penalty box, came in alone on Sorokin but held it on his backhand after late pressure met him. He slid past the right post but backhanded a centering pass to the top of the crease, where Pearson waited for an easy tap-in with 7:21 to go in the second.
“We’ve been giving chances on our odd-man rush for some reason,” Roy said. “It’s something we need to clean up.”
Two minutes later, Heineman got the Islanders back within two with his first goal with this new club. A bouncing dump-in by Schaefer found Jonathan Drouin between the circles of the Jets’ zone and sent a quick pass to Heineman at the right dot. He unleashed an 82-mph snapper that went off the far post and in — perfect placement and a reminder why he is playing on New York’s top line.
Mark Scheifele added an empty-netter for Winnipeg with 2:25 remaining.
“There’s urgency every day to win a game,” Roy said. “Every game we want to win, your next shift, or next period. We played well enough to win the game.”
