Islanders' Ilya Sorokin strong in goal in win over Bruins

BOSTON — It wasn’t exactly playoff-level hockey from two teams not likely to make the postseason.

“I thought we did OK,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “Sometimes you just need to find a way to win, and that’s what we did. We played well enough to win.”

So holding on for a 2-1 victory over the Bruins on Thursday night at TD Garden and snapping a four-game losing streak — thanks to goalie Ilya Sorokin’s bounce-back performance — was a step toward keeping their faint playoff hopes alive.

“I thought we did a better job of letting him see [the puck],” said defenseman Noah Dobson, who was a plus-2 but had five giveaways in 18:54 as he returned from an 11-game absence because of a lower-body injury. “If he’s going to see it, he’s going to make the saves. Then I think we had a couple of big blocks, especially at the end.”

Sorokin made 38 saves, including five on the Bruins’ first power play and 15 overall in the first period, and his teammates blocked 25 shots as the Islanders (26-25-7) were out-attempted 93-58.

They remain seven points behind the Blue Jackets for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot with three games left before next Friday’s NHL trade deadline.

“We know the position we’re in,” Anders Lee said. “We know we’ve got to put something together here. There’s no doubt in any of our minds that the last two games coming of the [NHL break] were good hockey but no results. We were bummed out about that.

“We had a little bit of an edge around the room and a little bit of irritation. I think it was a healthy way to handle it. You can’t suppress everything. The guys had some good focus the last couple of days and everyone was dialed in tonight regardless of if it was our best game or not.”

Sorokin was pulled after two periods from Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss to the visiting Rangers after allowing five goals on the first 10 shots he faced. At least three of the goals came on redirections as the Rangers consistently created traffic.

The Islanders spent a good portion of Wednesday’s practice working on giving Sorokin a better view.

“It’s just one game,” Sorokin said. “We win today so I can say, ‘Of course I see everything.’ But it’s just one game. We should continue to work on the details.”

The Bruins (27-25-8), in an 0-3-2 slide and playing without Long Beach’s Charlie McAvoy, pulled within 2-1 at 10:04 of the third period as David Pastrnak’s shot deflected in off defenseman Tony DeAngelo. It extended Pastrnak’s point streak to 16 games — the longest in the NHL this season — and marked his 800th NHL point.

Jeremy Swayman (18 saves) then kept the Bruins within one with a stretching pad save on Hudson Fasching at the right post at 12:28.

Roy’s other emphasis Wednesday was trying to install more swagger into his team’s play. He said he did see some of that, particularly in the third period.

Of course, the first period was a mess as the Bruins built a 14-1 shot advantage in the first 14 minutes.

“What I really loved is when they made it 2-1, we didn’t change our game,” Roy said. “Actually, it was the opposite. We had a push.”

Defenseman Alexander Romanov burst out of the penalty box and lifted a short-side shot on a two-on-one to open the scoring at 16:11 of the first period.

Kyle Palmieri, at the crease, extended it to 2-0 at 4:21 of the second period shortly after Sorokin denied Pavel Zacha’s breakaway off Romanov’s turnover at the Islanders’ blue line.

Notes & quotes: Mathew Barzal (lower body) was moved to long-term injured reserve to create salary cap space for Dobson . . . Defenseman Scott Mayfield remained a healthy scratch for the second straight game and Scott Perunovich came out of the lineup for Dobson . . . Fasching logged 9:47 and was elevated to Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s third line after missing 17 games since Jan. 5 with an upper-body injury. He initially took Pierre Engvall’s spot on the fourth line . . . The Bruins placed former Islander first-rounder Oliver Wahlstrom on waivers.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.