Mar 24, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech (3) reacts after being called for hooking during the second period against the Chicago Blackhawks at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
ELMONT, NY — The Chicago Blackhawks’ fourth goal of the night was the perfect encapsulation of the New York Islanders’ calamitous 4-3 loss on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
Trailing 3-1 six minutes into the second period, defenseman Scott Mayfield cleared the Islanders’ zone straight down the middle of the ice, which rang off the stick of forward Cal Ritchie and popped into the path of Blackhawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser.
He proceeded to heave the puck down the ice past Ritchie, who was cutting in front of him to return to the Islanders’ bench, and seemingly past the stick of diving Chicago forward Tyler Bertuzzi for a clear icing. Mayfield and fellow defenseman Adam Pelech pulled up, crossing the dots in the New York zone to wait for the whistle.
It never came.
Pelech, at a standstill, half-heartedly passed the puck to Mayfield, who was quickly stripped by Nick Lardis behind the goal. He fed Frank Nazar, who fired a one-time past an unsuspecting Ilya Sorokin for what eventually proved to be the game-winner.
The Islanders were befuddled, as the officiating squad of Graham Skilliter, Beau Halkidis, Jesse Marquis, and Tyson Baker claimed that Ritchie, who was nowhere near the puck, touched it to nullify the icing.
“I don’t know what that was about,” Ritchie said when asked by amNewYork. “I wasn’t even near the play. So that was a little frustrating.
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy revealed after the game that the officials admitted to making a mistake.
“It was bad timing for us,” Roy said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of the game, I guess.”
It was a similar message portrayed by Islanders captain Anders Lee, though it appeared as though it required every fiber of his being to keep his true feelings down.
“They said it hit Cal Ritchie. I don’t have time really to go back and look,” Lee said. “We got a game to play, so I’ll let you guys take care of that, but Cal said it didn’t hit him.”
Had the Islanders been able to put together anything resembling a legitimate, complete effort, though, that blown call would not have carried that much weight.
A fast start, headlined by Anders Lee’s opener 49 seconds into the game, was undone at the 12:44 mark of the first period when Mathew Barzal turned the puck over at the Blackhawks’ blue line, and after a half-hearted swing to bat the departing piece of rubber out of mid-air, failed to backcheck while Lardis tied things up at the other end.
Roughly five-and-a-half minutes later, a Lee pass at the Chicago blue line could not be corralled by Mayfield. As the puck skittered over his stick, fellow defenseman Carson Soucy lost track of it, allowing the Blackhawks to spring Ilya Mikheyev through. He ultimately beat David Rittich low through the pads.
Chicago’s third came when an Alex Vlasic shot was saved by Rittich, but it bounced off his defenseman, Adam Boqvist, and behind the Islanders’ netminder. Tyler Bertuzzi was there to stuff it home to give the visitors a 3-1 lead, prompting Roy to pull Rittich at the first intermission.
“[The Blackhawks] are a good rush team, so when we give them those chances, that’s what’s going to happen,” Roy said. “It’s fine that we were making mistakes, but I feel like we should have recovered from it. We should have backchecked, we should have tried to protect the net-front.”
The lack of polish was staggering for a team that got back into a playoff spot on Sunday night with a 1-0 shutout of the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets. But any goodwill gained from that disappeared in an instant on Tuesday night. The Ottawa Senators jumped both the Red Wings and the Islanders for that final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with a win over Detroit earlier in the evening.
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