The Skinny: Isles 4, San Jose 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 71

Isles 4, San Jose 1

Kyle Palmieri and Ryan Pulock scored 3:06 apart in the second period to break open a 1-1 game and the Isles scored the game's final four goals for a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks before a crowd of 16,880 at SAP Center at San Jose. 

Ilya Sorokin matched a career-high by appearing in his 52nd game for the second consecutive season and made 29 saves for his 25th victory.

The Isles improve to 36-27-8 as they return home to face Toronto on Tuesday. The Isles most back into the first Wild Card; they are two points ahead of Pittsburgh, but the Penguins have played two fewer games.  The Isles are three points ahead of Florida, who have three games in hand on the Isles. 

The Scoring:

1st Period

Kevin Labanc (12) Logan Couture (35), Nico Sturm (9) 07:31 NYI 0,SJS 1

Jean-Gabriel Pageau (12) Casey Cizikas (14)  16:08 NYI 1,SJS 1 SHG

2nd Period

Kyle Palmieri (12) Scott Mayfield (13), Noah Dobson (28) 02:18 NYI 2,SJS 1

Ryan Pulock (4) Hudson Fasching (7), Pierre Engvall (11) 05:24 NYI 3,SJS 1 PPG  

3rd Period

Zach Parise (18) Alexander Romanov (19), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (21) 05:19 NYI 4,SJS 1

The Skinny    

The Isles are 13-5-3 in their last 21 games and 6-2-2 in their last ten road games; they are now a season-high nine games over NHL-.500 (also after 3/9 win over Pittsburgh)…. The Isles have outscored the opposition 21-6 over the last 14 third periods … The Isles' third period improves to +13; the Isles were +16 in the third period through 23 games, -17 over the next 34 games but are +15 over the last fourteen games … It was the Isles' 18th comeback win of the season; there are eight NHL team with at least 18 comeback wins and they occupy the eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference… Pierre Engvall extended his point streak to four games…The Sharks have won just six times on home-ice all season (6-20-10); since NHL went to 82 games schedule, no team has won fewer than eight games at home….Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his 3rd shorthanded goal of the season and sixth as an Islander; it was his 19th career shorthanded goal, ranking tied-5th among active NHLers…Casey Cizikas now has six points in the last nine games (1-5-6)…Nico Sturm won a career-high 16 face-offs…Lou Lamoriello earned his 1,399th win as an NHL General Manager (2nd all-time to David Poile -1,525).

The Injury

Sebastian Aho left the game after being hit by Kevin Labanc late in the first period.  He did not return.

The Wild Card Race

1. Isles 80 points in 72 games    (Tuesday vs. Toronto)

2. Pittsburgh 78 points in 70 games (Monday vs. Ottawa)

3. Florida 77 points in 69 games (Monday @ Detroit)

4. Washington 73 points in 70 games (Sunday @ Minnesota)

5. Buffalo 72 points in 68 games (Sunday vs. Boston)

6. Ottawa 71 points in 69 games (Monday @ Pittsburgh)

Sorokin and the Isles' Record Book

Ilya Sorokin appeared in his 52nd game and earned his 25th victory.  He is only the 3rd goalie in club history to win 25 games in consecutive seasons  (Chico Resch and Rick DiPietro each had streaks of three seasons) and the third goalie to appear in 52 games in consecutive seasons (DiPietro did it for three straight years and Tommy Salo did it for two).

NHL Leaders: Shorthanded Goals Since 2014-15

1. Brad Marchand 20

2. Jean-Gabriel Pageau 19

3. Cam Atkinson 18

Heavy Hitters

Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin are now 1-2 all-time in hits:

1. Cal Clutterbuck 3,712

2. Matt Martin 3,672

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2022-23  36-27-8 for 80 points in 71 games

• 2021-22  33-29-9 for 75 points in 71 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  1-3-4

• Season: 36-111-147

• Last Season (Final) 32-128-160

The Islander defense have scored 36 goals, which is the most that they have scored since tallying 39 goals in 2017-18.

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin has 15 shutouts in 120 career starts. He has recorded a shutout in 12.6% of his starts, which is the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 12.5%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise scored his 426th career goal, good for 9th among actives and breaking a tie with Brian Propp for 83rd all-time. Pittsburgh's Jeff Carter has 427 goals, which is 82nd all-time.

Home and Road

The Isles are 36-27-8 overall; they are 20-12-3 at home and 16-15-5 on the road.

San Jose is 19-37-14 overall; they are 6-20-10 at home and 13-17-4 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 20-14-5 against the East (13-5-1 vs. Metropolitan and 7-8-5 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 76 games at UBS Arena and recorded 54 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:

1. David Poile 1,525

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,399

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 22-10-4 when scoring first and are 14-17-3 when allowing the opening goal; they are 0-0-1 when a shootout produces the game's only goal.

The Shots

Isles        10-14-9=33

San Jose    9-8-13=30

The Isles are 19-10-3 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-0-0 when the shots are even and 17-17-5 when they are out-shot.

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 29 saves; he is 25-19-6 on the season and 1-0-2 vs. San Jose. 

Kaapo Kahkonen made 29 saves; he is 8-17-6 on the season and 2-1-0 vs. the Isles. 

Special Teams

The Isles were 1-5 on the power play (9:29); San Jose was 0-2 on the power play (4:00) and allowed a shorthanded goal.

The Isles are 16-10-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 20-17-5 when they do not. The Isles are 15-12-2 when they allow at least one power play goal and 21-14-6 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 30-6-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 6-21-5 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 15-6-8 in games decided by a single goal including 10-6 in regulation. They are 5-3 in games decided in overtime and are 0-5 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-7 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs   

The next set of back-to-backs will be on March 24th in Columbus and on March 25th vs. Buffalo. The Isles are 7-6-0 in the front end and 8-4-1 in the back end. 

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Adam Pelech (24:11);  San Jose: Erik Karlsson (25:05)

Bo Horvat led Isles forwards with 20:17 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-2-1), Noah Dobson (4-12-2), Adam Pelech (9-2-0), Ryan Pulock (7-5-1), Scott Mayfield (7-1-3), Brock Nelson (1-0-0), Mathew Barzal (2-1-0), Sebastian Aho (0-1-0), Bo Horvat (3-2-1), Tied (0-1-0).

Face-offs

Isles 20, San Jose 32 (68%)

Casey Cizikas won 4 of 5 for the Isles; Nico Sturm won 16 of 22 for San Jose. 

Hit Count

Isles 15 (Cal Clutterbuck -7)

San Jose 23 (Kevin Labanc -4)

Fights 

There were no fights. Season total: 16 (Martin-6, Johnston-3, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Cizikas, Romanov, Martin)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 19 (Alexander Romanov -4)

San Jose 14 (Steve Lorentz -3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 61, San Jose 56

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 46, San Jose 50

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Noah Dobson +7

San Jose: Mario Ferraro +8

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 14, San Jose 9

5-on-5: Isles 10, San Jose 9

Scratches

Oliver Wahlstrom-IR), (Otto Koivula -INJ) , (Mathew Barzal-INJ), Parker Wotherspoon, Ross Johnston, Josh Bailey

Games Lost: 180

The Ironmen

Zach Parise played in his 153rd consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. Overall, his streak is 154 games, making it the 15th-longest active streak in the NHL.  Anders Lee extended his streak to 101 games.   (Scott Mayfield, Ryan Pulock and Brock Nelson are the other Islanders to appear in every game this season.)

Challenges

Isles: 1 successful, 0 failures – STL goalie interference 11/3

Opponents: 2 successful, 0 failures – PIT offside 12/27, VAN goalie interference 2/9

League reviews: 6 (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.

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 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. (3): Dimitry Orlov Vs WAS 1/16 (4:27)

Dylan Cozens @ BUF 1/19 (0:12)

Mike Matheson @ MTL 2/11 (4:38)

Shootout Winners

For (0): 

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 1,054…

6. Bob Bourne 814 *** 7. Matt Martin 755 *** 8. Mike Bossy 752 *** 9. Brock Nelson 747 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 734…

12. Brent Sutter 694 *** 13. John Tavares 669 *** 14. Anders Lee 667 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Cal Clutterbuck 625

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 …

7. John Tavares 272 *** 8. Bob Bourne and Anders Lee 238 *** 10. Bobby Nystrom and Brock Nelson 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 217…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Kenny Jonsson 175 *** 25. Anders Lee 174

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 452 *** 15. Billy Harris 443 ***  16. Anders Lee 412 *** 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. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 17. Garry Howatt +75 *** 18. Adam Pelech +73 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 22. Patrick Flatley +57 *** 23. 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 29

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742 *** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249…

8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 127…

15. Bryan Berard 100 *** 16. Vladimir Malakhov 98 *** 17. Adam Pelech 97…  

23. Radek Martinek 85 *** 24. Noah Dobson 83*** 25. Scott Mayfield 81 

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 169…

17. Vladimir Malakhov 125 *** 18. Adam Pelech 121 *** 19. Thomas Hickey 117...20. Adrian Aucoin 113 *** 21. Noah Dobson 112 *** 22. Radek Martinek 109 *** 23. Dave Langevin 107 *** 24. Scott Lachance, Ken Morrow, and Scott Mayfield 105

Goalie Games

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282 …

9. Roland Melanson 136 *** 10 Semyon Varlamov 133 *** 11. Mark Fitzpatrick 129 *** 12. Garth Snow 127 *** 13. Ilya Sorokin 126

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130…

7. Roland Melanson 77 *** 8. Glenn Healy 66 *** 9. Ilya Sorokin 64 *** 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 split a pair of games over the weekend, defeating Syracuse 5-2 behind an Andy Andreoff hat trick and then dropping a 3-2 decision to Hartford. The Islanders are now 28-25-7-1 on the season; they currently hold the last playoff spot in their division by one point over Hartford despite losing to the Wolf Pack three times this month.

Andy Andreoff leads the team (and is tied for the AHL lead) with 29 goals, while Chris Terry continues to lead in assists (41) and points (60); his 60 points are 8th in the AHL with his 41 assists are 6th. William Dufour has 20 goals, which is tied-7th among AHL rookies while All-Star Ruslan Iskhakov is 3rd among AHL rookies with 31 assists and leads all rookies with 47 points.

Bridgeport visits Laval on Wednesday and Belleville on Friday.

Season Series Stats

The Isles sweep the season series, 2 games to 0 (and 4 points to 0).

The Isles are 6-1-3 (including a 5-2 win in October at home) in their last ten against the Sharks but this was their first win (1-1-2) in their last four trips to San Jose.

UP NEXT

TUESDAY, MARCH 21st  – TORONTO AT ISLANDERS 7:30pm

[ESPN+/HULU, WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

How's this for timing?  The Isles will honor #91 Butch Goring on his Legend Bobblehead Night as John Tavares and the Toronto Maple Leafs make their only regular season appearance of the season at UBS Arena.

The teams split a pair of games in Ontario this season; Anthony Beauvillier's overtime goal beat the Leafs in November, while the Leafs earned a 5-2 win in February.

The Isles are 1-5-0 in their last six games against Toronto, including 0-2-0 at UBS Arena.

This game will be streamed nationally on ESPN+/Hulu.

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