Islanders suffer shootout loss to Predators one game after nine-goal explosion

NASHVILLE, Tenn.— They can’t all be 9-0 wins.In tone, tenor and result, this one was far removed from Tuesday’s shellacking of the Devils.

The Islanders still haven’t won at Bridgestone Arena since 2017, and Thursday yielded a 2-1 shootout defeat to the Predators in a low-event match with Filip Forsberg notching the winner.“Sometimes you gotta play those games on the road,” Ryan Pulock told The Post.“I thought defensively we were a little better.

… I think when you get it to overtime, you try to get the second [point].We want two there.”Neither team’s offense did much to write home about in this game, and you can’t blame the loss solely on the power play when the Islanders had just two chances at five-on-four.The man advantage is where the culpability begins, though, both because it remains perhaps the Islanders’ single biggest liability right now and because it allowed a game-tying shorthanded goal to Ryan O’Reilly with under a minute to go in the second.That came after Cole Smith picked off Mathew Barzal’s errant feed from behind the net, feeding O’Reilly off the break for a shot that slid under David Rittich’s pads.

There was blame to go around, and it allowed the Predators to enter the third period tied at one in a game where the Islanders had been the better team through 40 minutes.“They’re pretty aggressive when they come at us,” Matthew Schaefer said.“And then we just gotta find a way to put one in the back of the net.”After the Islanders’ second power play of the night went for nothing, physical hostilities that had been building all night spilled over after Anders Lee clipped Juuse Saros.

The ensuing maelstrom took several minutes to calm down and ended with Tony DeAngelo and Luke Evangelista taking offsetting unsportsmanlike conducts, though Lee got off clean.“I thought it was the right call on the ice [but] I was disappointed that they blew the whistle because that would’ve been a goal,” coach Patrick ...