The Skinny: Isles 5, New Jersey 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 75

Isles 5, New Jersey 1

Kyle Palmier scored twice and added an assist and Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves as the Islanders defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-1 before a sellout crowd of 17,255 at UBS Arena.

Bo Horvat and Zach Parise (the latter shorthanded) each hit the empty net in the final 1:02 to hand the Devils their first loss by at least four goals all season. 

The Isles improve to 38-28-9 as they begin a stretch of three road games in Washington on Wednesday. The Isles remain in the first Wild Card; they are three points ahead of Pittsburgh and six points ahead of Florida.  Pittsburgh has nine games to play, Florida has eight games left and the Isles have seven.  Their magic number to clinch a playoff spot is now 11 (over both Buffalo and Florida). 

The Scoring:

1st Period

Pierre Engvall (16) Kyle Palmieri (16), Scott Mayfield (16) 07:37 NJD 0,NYI 1 

2nd Period 

Erik Haula (9) 06:15 NJD 1,NYI 1 SHG

Kyle Palmieri (14) Brock Nelson (36) 14:21 NJD 1,NYI 2

3rd Period

Kyle Palmieri (15) 15:25 NJD 1,NYI 3

Bo Horvat (37)EN Casey Cizikas (15), Anders Lee (22) 18:58 NJD 1,NYI 4

Zach Parise (21)EN Jean-Gabriel Pageau (24) 19:59 NJD 1,NYI 5 SHG

The Skinny    

The Isles are 15-6-4 in their last 25 games and 10-4-0 in their last fourteen home games…. The Isles have outscored the opposition 30-9 over the last 18 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 eighteen games … Pierre Engvall's goal ended an Isles scoreless streak at 80:17… The Isles earned their 85th point, one more than they had all last season…The Isles denied the Devils of their NHL-leading 27th comeback win and also stopped them from tying Boston for the most road wins in the NHL (27)…Ilya Sorokin earned his 66th win in his 129th game; he is now tied with Glenn Healy for 8th place in wins and tied with Mark Fitzpatrick for 11th in games played…Brock Nelson played in his 751st career game; he will tie Mike Bossy for 8th place in game played with his next appearance…Kyle Palmieri has matched last season's goal total (15); he played 69 games last season and has played 48 this season. Palmieri now has ten points in the last six games (5-5-10)…Zach Parise's late empty-netter handed the Devils their first loss of the season by at least four games…Parise now has two shorthanded goals in consecutive seasons for the first time in his NHL career…Anders Lee is now one point shy of his fourth 50-point season, and one assist shy of his career high…Bo Horvat scored for the first time in 12 games… The Isles scored and allowed a shorthanded goal for the first time since November 5, 2019, vs. Ottawa (fondly remembered as the Cole Bardreau game)….The Isles ended Nico Hischier's point streak at five games and Jesper Bratt's at four games.

First Time in a Ridiculously Long Time

• The Isles are +21 over the last eighteen third periods; it is the first time that has happened in a single season since the end of the 1983-84 season – the most recent 18 regular season games that the Isles have played as Stanley Cup champions.

 

First Time in a Long Time

• The Isles scored two empty-net goals in a game for the second time this season (Brock Nelson and Zach Parise in Vegas on December 17th), but they had not done so in a home game since March 24, 2013 at the Coliseum (John Tavares and Casey Cizikas).

The Wild Card Race

1. Isles 85 points in 75 games (Wednesday at Washington)

2. Pittsburgh 82 points in 73 games (Tuesday at Detroit)

3. Florida 79 points in 74 games (Wednesday at Toronto)

4. Buffalo 77 points in 73 games (Friday vs. NY Rangers)

5. Ottawa 77 points in 74 games (Thursday vs. Philadelphia)

6. Washington 76 points in 74 games (Wednesday vs Isles)

Isn't it Magic?

Pittsburgh can reach 100 points if they win their last nine games while Florida can reach 95 if they win their final eight games and Buffalo can do so if they win their final nine.  That makes the Isles' Magic number 11 over Florida and Buffalo and 16 over Pittsburgh. (The Isles can reach 99 so Pittsburgh's Magic number to finish in the first Wild Card is 18.)

Islander clinching numbers vs. other East Conference teams:  PHL (4), DET (7), WAS (8), OTT (9), BUF (11).

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.

Heavy Hitters

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

1. Cal Clutterbuck 3,728

2. Matt Martin 3,682

Martin had three hits in this game, giving him 274 for the season.  He needs 6 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  38-28-9 for 85 points in 75 games

• 2021-22  35-31-9 for 79 points in 75 games; finished 37-35-10 for 84 points.

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-1-1

• Season: 37-118-155

• 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 123 career starts. He has recorded a shutout in 12.19% of his starts, which is tied for the best in NHL history (since 1943-44) among goalies with at least 100 starts:

• Ilya Sorokin 12.2%

• Roman Cechmanek 12.2%

• Ken Dryden 11.8%

• Dominik Hasek 11.3%

Zach Attack 

Zach Parise has scored 429 career goals, good for tied-8th among actives. He has tied Jeff Carter and Bill Guerin for 80th place; Joe Thornton and Alex Kovalev are next with 430 goals. 

Active NHLers:  8th-11th in goals

8. Jeff Carter 429

9. Zach Parise 429

10. Patrice Bergeron 427

11. John Tavares 423

Home and Road

The Isles are 38-27-9 overall; they are 22-13-3 at home and 16-15-6 on the road.

New Jersey is 46-20-8 overall; they are 20-13-4 at home and 26-7-4 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 22-15-6 against the East (14-6-2 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 1,527

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,401

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 23-10-5 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        10-17-9=36

New Jersey    9-8-14=31

The Isles are 21-10-4 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 30 saves; he is 27-19-7-8-2 on the season and 6-3-0 vs. New Jersey. 

Vitek Vanecek made 31 saves; he is 29-10-4 on the season and 5-3-0 vs. the Isles. 

Special Teams

The Isles were 0-1 on the power play (2:00); New Jersey was 0-2 on the power play (2:57). Each team scored shorthanded, with the Isles scoring into an empty net.

The Isles are 16-10-4 when they score at least one power play goal and 22-18-5 when they do not. The Isles are 15-12-3 when they allow at least one power play goal and 23-15-6 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 32-6-4 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 6-22-5 when they do not.

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 14-6-9 in games decided by a single goal including 9-6 in regulation. They are 5-4 in games decided in overtime and are 0-5 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 (25:02);  New Jersey: Jack Hughes (22:01)

Brock Nelson led Isles forwards with 17:36 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Alexander Romanov (2-2-1), Noah Dobson (4-12-2), Adam Pelech (10-3-0), 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, New Jersey 22 (58%)

Bo Horvat won 13 of 19 for the Isles; Erik Haula won 7 of 13 for New Jersey.

Hit Count

Isles 24 (Alexander Romanov -6)

New Jersey 13 (Four with 2)

Fights 

None. Season total: 17 (Martin-7, Johnston-3, Lee-2, Wahlstrom-2, Cizikas, Romanov, Mayfield)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 19 (Adam Pelech -4)

New Jersey 15 (Jack Hughes -4)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 65, New Jersey 66

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 58, New Jersey 55

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Kyle Palmieri +15

New Jersey: Damon Severson +15

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 18, New Jersey 18

5-on-5: Isles 16, New Jersey 16

Scratches

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

Games Lost: 192

The Ironmen

Zach Parise played in his 157th consecutive Islander game; he has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021. Overall, his streak is 158 games, making it the 15th-longest active streak in the NHL.  Anders Lee extended his streak to 105 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 (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 1,055…

6. Bob Bourne 814 *** 7. Matt Martin 759 *** 8. Mike Bossy 752 *** 9. Brock Nelson 751 *** 10. Casey Cizikas 738…

12. Brent Sutter 694 *** 13. Anders Lee 671 *** 14. John Tavares 669 *** 15. Derek King 638 *** 16. Cal Clutterbuck 629

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 218…

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 455 *** 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 +80 ***  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. Mark Fitzpatrick and Ilya Sorokin 129

Wins

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

7. Roland Melanson 77 *** 8. Glenn Healy and Ilya Sorokin 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 is 30-25-7-1 on the season; they currently hold the last playoff spot in their division by one point over Hartford. Bridgeport is also just four points behind Lehigh Valley.  Bridgeport has nine games to play while the other teams have just eight.

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-6th 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 closes out March on Wednesday in Hartford.

Season Series Stats

The Isles win the season series, 2 games to 1 (and 4 points to 2).

The Isles are 16-5-0 in their last 21 games against the Devils, including 8-3-0 at home.

UP NEXT

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29th-  ISLANDERS  AT WASHINGTON 7:30pm

[TNT (NHL on TNT Face Off at 7:00pm), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Isles have just four road games remaining and two of them will be against the Washington Capitals in our nation's capital. 

The Caps won both meetings at UBS Arena this season, winning 4-3 in overtime in January and 5-1 earlier this month.  The Isles are 2-4-3 in their last nine games with Washington and have won just once in DC in their last six trips (1-4-1).

Brendan Burke and Darren Pang will have the call on TNT.

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