DENVER — Lane Lambert has been reticent to criticize officiating for most of his tenure as Islanders head coach.
That tendency evaporated Tuesday.
“I thought Mike Reilly’s [interference] call was terrible,” Lambert said following a 5-4 overtime loss to the Avalanche in which Colorado tied the game at 4-4 on a power play following the call on Reilly. “What more can you say? They called them.
“That’s the way it goes.”
Lambert can expect a call from Ninth Avenue on Wednesday, but evidently decided it was worth the trouble of a likely fine.
With six seconds to go on an Islanders power play, Reilly was called for interfering with Andrew Cogliano in the neutral zone at the 10:47 mark of the third period, with the Isles hanging on to a 4-3 lead.
The eventual power-play goal from Valeri Nichushkin featured an element of luck as well.
Cale Makar suffered a broken stick on an attempted shot from the point, but the puck went to Nathan MacKinnon at the post, setting up an easy tap-in for Nichushkin from the low slot.
Colorado proceeded to win the game in overtime after another penalty on the Islanders — this one from Scott Mayfield for holding at the end of regulation — set up a four-on-three in the extra period, which MacKinnon converted.
Robert Bortuzzo also left the game with an apparent right leg injury after taking a hit from Samuel Girard along the wall at 15:41 of the second.
Lambert did not have any update on his status.
Pierre Engvall drew back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch on Sunday in Pittsburgh, with Matt Martin coming out.
Sebastian Aho was a healthy scratch for the first time since early last season, with Bortuzzo rejoining the fold.
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