The Skinny: Isles 5, Calgary 4 (SO)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 17

Isles 5, Calgary 4 (SO)

Oliver Wahlstrom scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of the shootout as the Islanders snapped their 7-game winless streak and ended the road trip at NHL.500 (1-1-2) with a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames before a crowd of 17,167 at Scotiabank Saddledome.   

Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist for the Isles and Ilya Sorokin made 35 saves, plus three more in the shootout to earn the win.

The Isles regain NHL-.500 (6-6-5) as they extend their point streak to three games (1-0-2); they will host Philadelphia on both Wednesday and Saturday next week, with a road game in Ottawa in between.

The Scoring:

1st Period 

Martin Pospisil (3) Nazem Kadri (7), Connor Zary (4) 12:16 NYI 0,CGY 1

Hudson Fasching (1) Cal Clutterbuck (4), Brock Nelson (4) 16:52 NYI 1,CGY 1

2nd Period

Kyle Palmieri (4) Bo Horvat (9), Noah Dobson (10) 04:07 NYI 2,CGY 1 PPG

Mathew Barzal (4) 08:07 NYI 3,CGY 1

Blake Coleman (5) Nick DeSimone (4), Jonathan Huberdeau (7) 17:03 NYI 3,CGY 2

3rd Period

MacKenzie Weegar (4) Connor Zary (5), Nazem Kadri (8) 03:12 NYI 3,CGY 3

Brock Nelson (8) Pierre Engvall (7), Sebastian Aho (4) 03:32 NYI 4,CGY 3

Yegor Sharangovich (3) Noah Hanifin (5), Elias Lindholm (9) 13:43 NYI 4,CGY 4

OT

No Goals

The Shootout

1. Yegor Sharangovich (G)/ Bo Horvat (G)

2. Jonathan Huberdeau (NG)/ Mathew Barzal (NG)

3. Rasmus Andersson (NG)/Kyle Palmieri (NG)

4. Connor Wary(NG)/Oliver Wahlstrom (G/GDG)

The Isles are 1-1 in the shootout while Calgary is 0-3… The Isles have scored four goals in two shootouts after scoring only three shootout goals all last season. …Ilya Sorokin improves to 6-9 in his career in shootouts…The Isles are 4-13 in their last 17 shootouts and now have an NHL -record 90 shootout wins...The Isles have scored 4 of 12 shootouts, with Bo Horvat and Oliver Wahlstrom each scoring twice…Islander goalies have stopped 8 of 12 opponent shootout attempts.

The Skinny    

The Isles have outscored their opponents 18-10 in the first period this season … Bo Horvat extended his point streak to five games while Mathew Barzal recorded a point for the fourth straight game…The Isles have been outscored 18-5 in the third period over the last ten games and 15-3 over the last eight games…The Isles have been outscored 28-11 in the third period and overtime this season…The Isles are -13 in the third period; only San Jose (-22) and Seattle (-15) have a lower differential….The Isles have led at some point of 14 of their first 17 games, but this was only their sixth win…Bo Horvat is 4-7-11 in his last 11 games…. Noah Dobson had an assist to maintain his share of the team lead in points with Matthew Barzal -each has 15 points… …Cal Clutterbuck had an assist, three hits, and four takeaways in his 999th NHL game… Brock Nelson scored his 249th career goal and added an assist; he has four goals in November to go along with four goals in October…Before scoring the game-deciding goal, Oliver Wahlstrom had gone -4, being on-ice for all four Flames goals…Alex Romanov and Ryan Pulock each went -3…The Isles scored the game's only power play goal; the Isles power play improved to 22.9% (11-48), which is 11th in the NHL….The Isles have been shorthanded 60 times (18-60, 70.0%), which is a difference of 0.71 power plays per game…Anders Lee played his 695th game, passing Brent Sutter for 12th place on the club's all-time list…Adam Pelech played his 456th game, matching Thomas Hickey for 40th place.

First Time in a Long Time 

Lane Lambert earned the victory on his 59th birthday. He is the first Islander head coach to earn a win on his birthday since January 21, 2017, when Doug Weight earned the win in his second game as Islander coach.

Always Something New

Cal Clutterbuck recorded an assist on his 36th birthday (his first birthday point since a goal in 2014).  He is the first Islander, aged 36 or older, to record a point on his birthday.

5-on-5 

Not counting the shootout, the Isles allowed 15 goals on this road trip.  The Isles have allowed eight power play goals, five goals at 5-on-5, a 3-on-3 OT goal, and a shorthanded-empty netter.  All four of Calgary's goals were scored at 5-on-5.

Tonight, Overtime (or the shootout) Was Our Time

The Isles are 0-4 in games decided by an overtime goal. allowing four goals on 12 shots; the six overtimes have taken 17:34 to play. They are 1-1 in shootouts.

Ilya Sorokin is 14-22 in his career in games that have gone beyond sixty minutes; he is 8-13 in games decided in overtime and 6-9 in games decided by a shootout.

The Isles have lost 21 of the last 32 games that were decided by an overtime goal (since January 11, 2020).

Shoot the Puck!

The Isles have been getting more rubber on goal during power plays than they did last season:

• 2023-24  Isles have 71 shots in 68:53 of PP   (1.03 shots per minute)

• 2022-23  Isles had 336 shots in 379:43 of PP (0.88 shots per minute)

That's a 17% increase in shots per minute spent on the power play.

Killing Their Own PP

The Isles have taken a penalty to interrupt their power play eight times this season.

Heavy Hitters

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

1. Cal Clutterbuck 3,799

2. Matt Martin 3,734

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

• 2023-24  6-6-5 for 17 points in 17 games

• 2022-23  11-6-0 for 22 points in 17 games

Offense from Defense

• Today:  0-2-2

• Season: 7-20-27

• Last Season (Final) 41-132-173

The Islander defense scored 41 goals last season, which was the most since they scored 42 in 2003-04.  The 173 points were their most since 1993-94, when they had 174 points in an 84-game season.

Best of the Best

Ilya Sorokin has 17 shutouts in 141 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%

Varly, Varly

Semyon Varlamov has 40 career shutouts and 274 career wins.  Among active NHL goalies (and excluding Carey Price, who is technically still active), Varlamov is 6th in wins (274) and third in shutouts (40).

Home and Road

The Isles are 6-6-5 overall; they are 3-3-3 at home and 3-3-2 on the road.

Calgary is 6-8-3 overall; they are 3-3-1 at home and 3-5-2 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 4-3-3 against the East (2-1-2 vs. Metropolitan and 2-2-1 vs. Atlantic) and 2-3-2 against the West (1-2-0 vs. Central and 1-1-2 vs. Pacific).

Home is Where the Fans Are

The Isles have played 91 games at UBS Arena and recorded 63 sellouts of 17,255. 

Sweet Lou

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

1. David Poile 1,531

2. Lou Lamoriello 1,411

3. Glen Sather 1,319

First Things First

The Isles are 5-1-5 when scoring first and are 1-5-0 when allowing the opening goal.

The Shots

Isles     8-9-14-2=33  

Calgary 10-11-14-4=39

The Isles are 1-2-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 1-0-0 when the shots are even and 4-4-4 when they are out-shot.

In the Nets

Ilya Sorokin made 35 saves; he is 4-3-4 on the season and 2-1-0 vs. Calgary.   

Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves; he is 4-6-2 on the season and 6-5-2 vs. the Isles.  

Special Teams

The Isles were 1-3 on the power play (1:09); Calgary was 0-3 on the power play (2:54). 

The Isles are 3-3-3 when they score at least one power play goal and 3-3-2 when they do not. The Isles are 2-3-4 when they allow at least one power play goal and 5-2-1 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 4-1-5 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 2-5-0 when they do not.  Under Lane Lambert the Isles are 39-7-9 when scoring at least three goals.

One-Goal Games

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

Back-to-Backs     

The Isles are 0-0-2 in the front end and 0-1-1 in the back end this season. The next set of back-to-backs will be on November 24 in Ottawa and November 25 vs. Philadelphia.  

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Noah Dobson (26:04);  Calgary: Rasmus Andersson (26:35)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards with 20:05 of ice-time. 

Isles record by ice-time leaders: Ryan Pulock (2-0-2), Noah Dobson (4-4-2), Alex Romanov (0-2-0), Adam Pelech (0-0-1).

Face-offs

Isles 29, Calgary 23 (56%)

Bo Horvat won 13 of 18 for the Isles; no Flame who took multiple face-offs won more than he lost. 

Hit Count

Isles 20 (Cal Clutterbuck & Jean-Gabriel Pageau -3)

Calgary 24 (Mackenzie Weegar-5)

Fights 

None. Season total: 2 (Martin 1, Pelech 1)

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 22 (Ryan Pulock -3)

Calgary 17 (Rasmus Andersson-4)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 49, Calgary 62

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 62, Calgary 76

 

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles:  Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat +5

Calgary: Martin Pospisil  +11

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 13, Calgary 16

5-on-5: Isles 16, Calgary 18

Scratches

Matt Martin (upper body), Julien Gauthier (sick), Samuel Bolduc

Games Lost: 15

The Ironmen

Three Islanders have played at least 100 consecutive games:

• Anders Lee 129 

• Brock Nelson 101 

• Ryan Pulock 100 

Challenges

Isles:1 successful, 0 failures – WSH goalie interference (11/2)

Opponents: 0 successful, 1 failures – BUF no offside  (10/21) 

Quickies

The Isles have scored two goals in under a minute no times this season (no times at home and none on road) and allowed two in the same span three times (COL 10/25 x2, MIN 11/8)

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins

The Isles have come from two goals behind after two periods to win no times this season and have allowed the opposition to do so once.

For (0):  

Vs (2): DET 10/30 (trailed 0-2, won 4-3 in OT); CAR 11/4 (trailed 1-3, won 4-3 in OT) 

Last Minute Heroes:

The Isles have scored one goal and have allowed no goals in the final three minutes of the third period to tie or go-ahead:

For (1): Bo Horvat 10/20 vs NJ 18:49 (Isles lost in OT)

OT Winners

For (0):  

Vs (4):   Jack Hughes (NJ) 10/20, Lucas Raymond (DET) 10/30, Sebastian Aho (CAR) 11/4, Quinn Hughes (VAN) 11/15

Shootout Winners

For (1):  Oliver Wahlstrom (NYI) 11/18

Vs (1):  Kailer Yamamoto (VAN) 11/16 

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,057…

6. Bob Bourne 814 *** 7. Matt Martin 780 *** 8.Brock Nelson 775 *** 9.  Casey Cizikas 762…

11. Patrick Flatley 712 *** 12. Anders Lee 695 *** 13. Brent Sutter 694 *** 14. John Tavares 669 *** 15. Cal Clutterbuck 653

Goals    

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

7. John Tavares 272 *** 8. Brock Nelson 249 *** 9. Anders Lee 242 …

28. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 29. Mathew Barzal 109 *** 30.Benoit Hogue and Ed Westfall 105 ***32. Anthony Beauvillier 102 *** 33. Anders Kallur 101 *** 34. Casey Cizikas 100

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 …

13. Pat LaFontaine 279 *** 14. Bob Nystrom 278 *** 15. Mathew Barzal 267…

18. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 20. Brock Nelson 225…

23. Ed Westfall 181 *** 24. Anders Lee 177…

34. Steve Thomas 140 *** 35. Mark Streit 139 *** 36. Greg Gilbert 136 *** 37. Ryan Pulock 133

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

13. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 14. Brock Nelson 474 *** 15. Billy Harris 443 ***  16. Anders Lee 419 *** 17. Mathew Barzal 376…

34. Kenny Jonsson 232 *** 35. Greg Gilbert 231 *** 36. Benoit Hogue and Trent Hunter 229 *** 38. Casey Cizikas 228

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 *** 2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Adam Pelech +81 ***  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. Greg Gilbert +54  

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** 3. Kenny Jonsson 57…

5. Jean Potvin 46 *** 6. Nick Leddy 45 *** 7. Ryan Pulock 44 *** 8. Roman Hamrlik 43 *** 9. Mark Streit 40 *** 10. Johnny Boychuk and Noah Dobson 35

Defense Assists

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

7. Jeff Norton 166 *** 8. Mark Streit 139 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 133…

12. Roman Hamrlik 110 *** 13. Tom Kurvers and Gerry Hart 108  ***15. Noah Dobson 101 *** 16. Bryan Berard and Adam Pelech  100… 

20. Dave Langevin and Thomas Hickey 95 *** 22. Ken Morrow 88 *** 23. Bert Marshall and Scott Mayfield 87

Defense Points

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

7. Jeff Norton 188 *** 8. Mark Streit 179 *** 9. Ryan Pulock 177…

11, Travis Hamonic 146 *** 12. Dave Lewis 141 *** 13. Noah Dobson 136… 

15. Johnny Boychuk and Bryan Berard 131 *** 17. Gerry Hart 128 *** 18. Vladimir Malakhov and Adam Pelech 125 ***  20. Thomas Hickey 117 *** 21. Adrian Aucoin 113 *** 22. Scott Mayfield 112

Goalie Games

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

8. *** Glenn Healy 176 *** 9. Ilya Sorokin 147 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 141

Wins

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

7. Roland Melanson 77 *** 8. Ilya Sorokin 74 *** 9. Glenn Healy 66 *** 10. Tommy Salo 62 *** 11. Semyon Varlamov 61

Shutouts

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Billy Smith 22 *** 3. Ilya Sorokin 17 *** 

4. Rick DiPietro 16 *** 5. Semyon Varlamov 15

On the Farm  

Bridgeport is 4-9-1-0 on the season after they dropped a home-and-home series with Hershey, losing 5-4 in Pennsylvania on Friday and 4-0 at home on Saturday. The Baby Isles will conclude a 3-in-3 weekend by hosting Providence on Sunday afternoon.

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series, 1 game to 0 (and 2 points to 1).  The teams will meet on February 10th at UBS Arena to complete the season series.

This was the Isles' first win in Calgary since March 2018 and only their second in the last seven games overall against the Flames. The Isles' win in March 2018 in Calgary remains their only regulation win over Flames since October 26, 2015; Calgary is 7-1-4 against the Isles in that stretch while the Isles are 5-7-0.

UP NEXT

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd  —PHILADELPHIA AT ISLANDERS– 7:30pm ET

[MSGSN2, WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, ESPN Radio]

The Philadelphia Flyers make two appearance at UBS Arena this season and both will be during Thanksgiving weekend, beginning on Turkey Eve.  

Cal Clutterbuck is expected to play his 1,000th NHL game as Lane Lambert coaches his 100th NHL/Islander game.

The Isles took three out of four games from Philadelphia last season, outscoring the Flyers 12-6, and are 11-2-0 in the last thirteen games against the Flyers. The Isles have won all four games with Philly at UBS, outscoring the Flyers 17-6, and have won seven straight home games against the Flyers.

Philadelphia is one of two divisional opponents that the Isles will play only three times this season (Columbus is the other), so after this weekend the teams won't play until April 1st at Wells Fargo Center.

AND FINALLY…

I was honored to be featured on the latest edition of Talkin Isles with Greg Picker and Cory Wright.  Find it here: https://talkin-isles.simplecast.com/episodes/eric-hornick

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