"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 76
Isles 2, Washington 1 (SO)
The Islanders won a shootout! Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri both scored in the skills competition as the Islanders earned a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals before a sellout crowd of 18,573 at Capital One Arena. It was the first Islander win in six shootouts this season.
Pierre Engvall and Conor Sheary scored 2:30 apart in the second period for the game's only tallies. Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves for his 28th victory of the season.
The Isles improve to 39-28-9 and are now a season-high 11 games over .500, heading into a back-to-back in Tampa Bay on Saturday and Carolina on Sunday. The Isles remain in the first Wild Card; they are five points ahead of Pittsburgh and six points ahead of Florida. Pittsburgh has eight games to play, Florida has seven games left and the Isles have six. Their magic number to clinch a playoff spot is now 9 (over both Buffalo and Florida).
The Scoring:
1st Period
No Goals
2nd Period
Pierre Engvall (17) Brock Nelson (37), Alexander Romanov (20) 03:52 NYI 1,WSH 0
Conor Sheary (15) 06:22 NYI 1,WSH 1
3rd Period
No Goals
OT
No Goals
The Shootout
Evgeny Kuznetsov (G)/ Bo Horvat (G)
T.J. Oshie (NG)/ Kyle Palmieri (G/GDG)
Nicklas Backstrom (NG)
The Isles improve to 1-5 in shootouts while Washington is 2-4… Kyle Palmieri was credited with his fifth game-deciding goal; Palmieri also had the winning goal in the last Islander shootout win (April 12, 2022 in Pittsburgh)…The Isles had scored just one goal in a shootout this season prior to tonight…Ilya Sorokin is 1-4 this season and 5-9 in his career in shootouts…It is the 89th shootout win in Islander history, which extends their NHL record (Pittsburgh and the Rangers have won 87) and ends a seven-game losing streak in shootouts with Washington (dating back to an Islander win on February 20, 2008 with Rick DiPietro in goal) and is only the third Islander win in their last 15 shootouts overall.
The Skinny
The Isles are 16-6-4 in their last 26 games and 6-2-4 in their last twelve road games; the Isles are 17-15-6 on the road…. The Isles have outscored the opposition 30-9 over the last 19 third periods … The Isles' third period differential improves to +20; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games, -17 over the next 34 games but are +21 the last nineteen games … Pierre Engvall has five goals in the last nine games; he now has 47 career goals, the most of any active NHL player without a multi-goal game… The Isles earned their 87th point, three more than they had all last season… Ilya Sorokin earned his 67th win in his 130th game, breaking ties with Glenn Healy for 8th place in wins and with Mark Fitzpatrick for 11th in games played…Brock Nelson played in his 752nd career game, matching Mike Bossy for 8th place in game played; he now has ten more points this season than in any previous year…The Isles improve to 114 games over NHL-.500 for the first time since March 30, 1996 (27 years ago tomorrow)…The Isles went 8-3-1 in March, including 8-1-1 with Ilya Sorokin in goal. Only Edmonton's Stuart Skinner (9-1-1) has more wins in March than Sorokin.
Fit to Be Tied
This game was tied for 62:30. Ilya Sorokin has now played an NHL-leading 1381:35 in tied games (the equivalent of 23 complete games). Sorokin remains 3rd in the NHL in goals against and 4th in save percentage, with Linus Ullmark the leader in both categories. The Boston netminder has spent 932:11 in tied games, almost exactly two-thirds of Sorokin.
The Wild Card Race
1. Isles 87 points (33 regulation wins) in 76 games (Saturday at Tampa Bay)
2. Pittsburgh 82 points (27 RWs) in 74 games (Thursday vs. Nashville)
3. Florida 81 points (31 RWs) in 75 games (Thursday at Montreal)
4. Buffalo 77 points (27 RWs) in 73 games (Friday vs. NY Rangers)
5. Ottawa 77 points (29 RWs) in 74 games (Thursday vs. Philadelphia)
6. Washington 77 points (26 RWs) in 75 games (Thursday at Tampa Bay)
Isn't it Magic?
Pittsburgh can reach 98 points if they win their last eight games while Florida can reach 95 if they win their final seven games and Buffalo can do so if they win their final nine. That makes the Isles' Magic number 9 over Florida and Buffalo and 12 over Pittsburgh.
Islander clinching numbers vs. other East Conference teams: PHL (2), DET (5), WAS (4), OTT (7), BUF (9).
The Isles have clinched at least 14th place in the East, as CBJ and MTL cannot catch the Isles They will clinch a playoff spot by guaranteeing a finish above eight other Eastern Conference teams, and they will clinch the top wild card if they guarantee themselves a finish above nine other teams.
One at a Time (courtesy NHL)
Forwards with the most career regular-season goals and no multi-goal games, NHL history:
54 – Mike Sullivan
53 – Chris Thorburn
48 – Peter Marsh
47 – Pierre Engvall
Heavy Hitters
Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin are now 1-2 all-time in hits:
1. Cal Clutterbuck 3,731
2. Matt Martin 3,685
Martin had three hits in this game, giving him 277 for the season. He needs 23 to record his sixth 300 hit season (5th for the Isles). Martin (7) and Clutterbuck (3) have combined for the 10-biggest hits seasons in Isles history in the Real-Time era, which began in 2005-06.
Last Year vs. This Year
• 2022-23 39-28-9 for 87 points in 76 games
• 2021-22 35-31-10 for 80 points in 76 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.
Offense from Defense
• Today: 0-1-1
• Season: 37-119-156
• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160
The Islander defense have scored 37 goals, which is the most that they have scored since tallying 39 goals in 2017-18. The 160 points that they recorded last season was their most since 2017-18 (171).
Best of the Best
Ilya Sorokin has 15 shutouts in 124 career starts. He has recorded a shutout in 12.1% of his starts, which is the second-highest in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:
• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%
• Ilya Sorokin 12.1%
• Ken Dryden 11.8%
• Dominik Hasek 11.3%
Zach Attack
Zach Parise has scored 429 career goals, good for ninth among actives. He has tied Bill Guerin for 81st place; Jeff Carter, Joe Thornton and Alex Kovalev are next with 430 goals.
Active NHLers: 8th-11th in goals
8. Jeff Carter 430
9. Zach Parise 429
10. Patrice Bergeron 427
11. John Tavares 423
Home and Road
The Isles are 39-28-9 overall; they are 22-13-3 at home and 17-15-6 on the road.
Washington is 34-32-9 overall; they are 17-14-6 at home and 17-18-3 on the road.
East and West
The Isles are 23-15-6 against the East (15-6-2 vs. Metropolitan and 8-9-4 vs. Atlantic) and 16-13-3 against the West (6-7-3 vs. Central and 10-6-0 vs. Pacific).
Home is Where the Fans Are
The Isles have played 79 games at UBS Arena and recorded 57 sellouts of 17,255.
Sweet Lou
Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:
1. David Poile 1,528
2. Lou Lamoriello 1,402
3. Glen Sather 1,319
First Things First
The Isles are 24-10-5 when scoring first and are 15-18-3 when allowing the opening goal; they are 0-0-1 when a shootout produces the game's only goal.
The club record for wins after allowing the first goal is 18, set in 2014-15. The 2014-15 season is one of only three times in club history that the Isles have had at least a .500 record when allowing the opening goal.
The Shots
Isles 3-8-15-3=29
Washington 7-10-5-4=26
The Isles are 22-10-4 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 17-18-5 when they are out-shot.
In the Nets
Ilys Sorokin made 25 saves; he is 28-19-7 on the season and 2-2-1 vs. Washington.
Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves; he is 21-23-6 on the season and 4-4-2 vs. the Isles.
Special Teams
The Isles were 0-1 on the power play (0:29); Washington did not have a power play.
The Isles are 16-10-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 23-18-5 when they do not. The Isles are 15-12-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 24-15-6 when they do not.
Three is (Usually) a Magic Number
The Isles are 32-6-4 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 7-22-5 when they do not.
One-Goal Games
The Isles are 15-6-9 in games decided by a single goal including 9-6 in regulation. They are 5-4 in games decided in overtime and are 1-5 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-8 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.
Back-to-Backs
The final set of back-to-backs will be on April 1st in Tampa Bay and April 2nd in Carolina. The Isles are 7-6-1 in the front end and 8-4-2 in the back end.
Ice-time Leaders
Isles: Adam Pelech (26:00); Washington: John Carlson (24:20)
Bo Horvat led Isles forwards with 19:23 of ice-time.
Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-2-1), Noah Dobson (4-12-2), Adam Pelech (11-3-0), Ryan Pulock (7-5-1), Scott Mayfield (7-1-4), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Bo Horvat (4-2-1), Tied (0-1-0).
Face-offs
Isles 31, Washington 26 (54%)
Jean-Gabriel Pageau won 13 of 17 for the Isles; Nicklaus Backstrom won 10 of 15 for Washington.
Hit Count
Isles 24 (Scott Mayfield and Jean-Gabriel Pageau -4)
Washington 27 (Alex Ovechkin and Martin Fehervary -5)
Fights
None. Season total: 17 (Martin-7, Johnston-3, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Cizikas, Romanov, Mayfield)
Blocked Shots
Isles 15 (Four with 2)
Washington 27 (Three with 4)
For the Analytics Crowd
Corsi: All situations: Isles 64, Washington 51 (including 26-9 in the 3rd period)
Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 58, Washington 42
5-on-5 leaders:
Isles: Adam Pelech +13
Washington: Two with +4
High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)
All situations: Isles 9, Washington 7
5-on-5: Isles 7, Washington 5
Scratches
Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Mathew Barzal-INJ), Parker Wotherspoon, Ross Johnston, Josh Bailey, (Sebastian Aho-INJ)
Games Lost: 194
The Ironmen
Zach Parise played in his 158th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. Overall, his streak is 159 games, making it the 15th-longest active streak in the NHL. Anders Lee extended his streak to 106 games. (Scott Mayfield, Ryan Pulock and Brock Nelson are the other Islanders to appear in every game this season.)
Challenges
Isles: 2 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3, CBJ goalie interference 3/24
Opponents: 2 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27, VAN goalie interference 2/9
League reviews: 7 (Isles goal – Salo vs ANA 10/16 – stood; Isles no goal vs NSH 12/2-stood; Isles goal- Martin vs CHI 12/4-awarded; MIN goal (Gaudreau) 1/12 – awarded); MTL goal (Matheson) 2/11-stood; Isles goal – Fasching vs BUF 3/7 -awarded; NJD no goal 3/27-stood.
Quickies
The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute six times this season (five times at home and once on road):
• 0:17 10/29 vs. COL (Mayfield and Beauvillier)
• 0:59 11/7 vs. CGY (Lee and Palmieri)
• 0:22 11/26 vs PHI (Nelson and Beauvillier)
• 0:43 12/4 vs CHI (Parise and Nelson)
• 0:21 12/6 vs STL (Fasching and Pageau)
• 0:34 12/9 @ NJD (Cizikas and Wahlstrom)
Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins
The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win four times this season and have allowed the opposition to do so once.
For (4): Trailed 3-1, Won 5-3 vs. COL 10/29
Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) vs CGY 11/7
Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 at NYR 11/8
Trailed 3-1, Won 4-3 (OT) at PIT 3/9
Vs (1): Led 4-2, Lost 6-5 vs VAN 2/9
Last Minute Heroes:
The Isles have scored four goals and have allowed one goal in the final three minutes of the third period that were either the winning goal or forced overtime.
For(4): Brock Nelson vs COL 10/29 (18:39;EN/GW)
Josh Bailey @ TOR 11/21 (17:02; Isles won in OT)
Zach Parise Vs PIT 2/17 (17:17; GW)
Anders Lee @ PIT 3/9 (18:45; Isles won in OT)
Vs (1): Kappo Kaako @NYR 12/22 (17:13: GW)
Overtime Winners
For (5): Noah Dobson vs CGY 11/7 (4:02)
Zach Parise vs CBJ 11/12 (0:39)
Anthony Beauvillier @ TOR 11/21 (1:56)
Mathew Barzal vs VEG 1/28 (4:28)
Brock Nelson @ PIT 3/9 (2:13)
Vs. (4): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)
Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)
Mike Matheson @ MTL 2/11 (4:38)
Boone Jenner @ CBJ 3/24 (0:40
Shootout Winners
For (1): Kyle Palmieri @ WAS 3/29
Vs (5): David Pastrnak @ BOS 12/13
Evan Rodrigues @ COL 12/19
Jason Robertson Vs DAL 1/10
Tim Stutzle Vs OTT 2/14
Frederick Gaudreau @MIN 2/28
All-time Islander Leader Boards:
Games Played (skaters)
1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,055…
6. Bob Bourne 814 *** 7. Matt Martin 760 *** 8. Mike Bossy and Brock Nelson 752 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 739…
12. Brent Sutter 694 *** 13. Anders Lee 672 *** 14. John Tavares 669 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Cal Clutterbuck 630
Goals
1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …
7. John Tavares 272 *** 8. Anders Lee 239 *** 9. Bob Bourne 238 *** 10. Brock Nelson 237 *** 11. Bobby Nystrom 235 *** 12. Derek King 211 *** 13. John Tonelli 206 *** 14 Billy Harris and Josh Bailey 184…
28. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 29 Mathew Barzal, Benoit Hogue, and Ed Westfall 105
Assists
1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 *** 4. Josh Bailey 396…
13. Pat LaFontaine 279 *** 14. Bob Nystrom 278 *** 15. Billy Harris 259 *** 16. Mathew Barzal 257 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson 249 *** 18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 219…
23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Anders Lee 176
Points
1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…
6. Brent Sutter 610 *** 7. Josh Bailey 580 …
13. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 14. Brock Nelson 456 *** 15. Billy Harris 443 *** 16. Anders Lee 415 *** 17. Kyle Okposo and Stefan Persson 369…19. Mathew Barzal 362
+/-
1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…
15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Adam Pelech +79 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 18. Garry Howatt +75 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. Ryan Pulock +55 *** 24. Greg Gilbert +54
Defense Goals
1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** Kenny Jonsson 57…
6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Roman Hamrlik 43 **** 8. Ryan Pulock 42 *** 9. Mark Streit 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk *** 11. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 12. Bryan Berard 31***13. Noah Dobson 30
Defense Assists
1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…
8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 128…
15. Bryan Berard 100 *** 16. Vladimir Malakhov and Adam Pelech 98…
21. Ken Morrow 88 *** 22. Bert Marshall 87 *** 23. Radek Martinek and Noah Dobson 85 *** 25. Scott Mayfield 83
Defense Points
1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…
8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 170…
17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Adam Pelech 122 *** 19. Thomas Hickey 117*** 20. Noah Dobson 115 *** 21. Adrian Aucoin 113 *** 22. Radek Martinek 109 *** 23. Scott Mayfield 108
Goalie Games
1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282 …
9. Roland Melanson 136 *** 10 Semyon Varlamov 134 *** 11. Ilya Sorokin 130
Wins
1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…
7. Roland Melanson 77 *** 8. Ilya Sorokin 67 *** 9. Glenn Healy 66 *** 10. Tommy Salo 62 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 59
Shutouts
1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 16 …
4. Ilya Sorokin 15 *** 5. Tommy Salo 14 *** 6. Semyon Varlamov 13
On the Farm
Bridgeport dropped a 4-1 decision in Hartford on Wednesday to fall to 30-26-7-1 on the season; they are now one point behind the Wolf Pack for the final playoff spot. Bridgeport has eight games to play while Hartford has 7.
Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is 2nd in the AHL) with 31 goals, while Chris Terry continues to lead in assists (43) and points (62); his 62 points are tied-7th in the AHL with his 43 assists are 6th. William Dufour has 20 goals, which is tied-10th among AHL rookies while All-Star Ruslan Iskhakov is tied-2nd among AHL rookies with 32 assists and is tied-2nd among all rookies with 49 points.
Bridgeport visits Providence on Saturday night and hosts Lehigh Valley on Sunday afternoon.
Season Series Stats
Washington leads the season series, 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 3).
This was only the Isles' third win in their last ten games with Washington (3-4-3) and just their second in DC in their last seven trips (2-4-1).
UP NEXT
SATURDAY, APRIL 1st - ISLANDERS AT TAMPA BAY 7:00pm
[MSGSN (Pre-game at 6:30), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]
The Isles have just six games remaining and two of them will be against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The teams have met just once this season, with the Lightning earning a 5-3 win on October 22nd in the Isles' first road game of the season.
The Isles have lost five straight regular season games to the Lightning since defeating the Bolts 5-1 at Amalie Arena on December 9, 2019, and have been out-scored 22-10 in that span.
Tampa Bay will make their only appearance at UBS Arena on Thursday.
Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick
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