Andrew Gross: Islanders cover up potential flaws in dominant win over Flyers
New York Islanders center Bo Horvat looks on before a face-off against the Buffalo Sabres in the third period of an NHL hockey game at UBS Arena on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Islanders responded, playing a nearly flawless game after too many of their flaws had come to the forefront and threatened to spoil what has been such a feel-good story this season.
The cracks had started to deepen, enough that Monday night’s 4-0 road win over the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena to snap a two-game losing streak cannot fully caulk them. It’s uncertain how much time defenseman Ryan Pulock (upper body) will miss and what kind of Band-Aid acquiring pending unrestricted free agent Carson Soucy from the rival Rangers for a third-round pick will be. The trade was formally announced shortly after the game ended.
Still, with the possibility of falling out of a playoff spot with a regulation loss and the danger of not responding to coach Patrick Roy’s laying down of the gauntlet by benching Mathew Barzal’s line with Anthony Duclair and captain Anders Lee for the third period of Saturday’s 5-0 loss to the Sabres at UBS Arena for faulty backchecking from the former two, the Islanders rose to the challenge.
“We’re definitely not happy when we’re losing,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau told MSG Networks in a postgame interview after a two-goal performance, including opening the scoring with a shorthanded goal at 14:29 of the first period, and a 10-for-13 effort on faceoffs. “We wanted to find a solution.
“I think the best solution was to come up and play together. I thought we looked like a team tonight from the top to the bottom of the lineup. The effort, the support, I felt like everything was connected.”
The goaltending, which had slipped, was again superb with Ilya Sorokin making 21 saves to notch his NHL-leading sixth shutout. The defensive play, which had not been good, limited the Flyers to 21 shots, including just 13 skating five-on-five.
Four goals were scored, including Pageau’s shorthanded tally, defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s first power-play goal since joining the Islanders on Jan. 24, 2025 and two five-on-five goals, the Islanders’ first since a 4-3 win in Vancouver on Jan. 19. The Islanders had produced just one goal in their previous two games and four of their last five had ended with them scoring two goals or fewer.
And Barzal’s line with Duclair and Jonathan Drouin was continually creating chances and playing responsible defense. Barzal’s hard work was rewarded when defenseman Isaiah George’s shot deflected in off his body for a 2-0 lead at 5:41 of the second period.
Most importantly, Duclair and Barzal were anything but deficient in their backchecking efforts. And it did not pass notice that Roy trusted those two to be on the ice for the final minute of the second period after their lack of backchecking as the Sabres’ Tage Thompson scored a dagger of a goal for a 2-0 lead with 12.9 seconds left in Saturday’s second period.
Monday’s match certainly felt like a tipping point in the season before the puck dropped.
Now, the Islanders have a four-point gap between them and the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division and moved two points behind the second-place Penguins, who have won four straight.
Plus, Soucy immediately gets to face his former team, if Roy inserts him into the lineup. The Islanders start a home-and-home, back-to-back with the Rangers on Wednesday at UBS Arena.
“It was a solid team effort tonight,” Roy said. “We talked about it before the game that we wanted to play a solid, 200-foot game for 60 minutes and that’s exactly what we did.”
The win and the way the Islanders won also reinforced Roy’s sway over the dressing room after he did the right thing by benching the line on Saturday. It would have looked terrible for the coach if the Islanders had not responded this way and instead came out flat and defensively leaky again.
“It is a massive game for us,” Pageau said after Monday’s morning skate.
Saturday’s dud against the Sabres had been preceded by a dud of a 4-1 loss to the Kraken to complete a 3-3-1 road trip.
“Tonight, it’s about swagger,” Roy said before the game as he emphasized the need to play a 200-foot game.
The Islanders responded the right way.
It can’t stop here.
Notes & quotes: Forwards Cal Ritchie (lower body) and Simon Holmstrom (illness) were both unavailable…Barzal tied Clark Gillies for fifth on the Islanders’ all-time list with his 359th career assist.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
