Beat-up Islanders find a way to win, edge Vegas Golden Knights
Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo high-fives center Bo Horvat after a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights in the first period of an NHL game at UBS Arena on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The injury-depleted Islanders skipped to the “Rocky II” script, the one in which the titular boxer won.
“We don’t want to go down,” coach Patrick Roy said. “People love people that refuse to go down. And when they go down, they go back up. And that’s exactly what we did. We gave up a goal. They tied the game and we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves.”
Roy, asked about top-liner Mathew Barzal’s indefinite absence, had cited the original “Rocky” prior to the Islanders 2-1 victory over Vegas on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. Of course, he noted, Apollo Creed actually won the first fight.
But Brock Nelson tipped Alexander Romanov’s shot for the winner at 10:43 of the third period, a little more than three minutes after Vegas tied the game, and Ilya Sorokin, a day after being named the NHL’s first star of the week, stopped 33 shots behind some tenacious defense.
It earned the Islanders (25-21-7) their 11th win in 14 games and their sixth straight home victory. They moved within three points of the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot despite being outshot 34-14.
“As many shots as they had, I thought we did a good job of limiting the Grade-As,” said Tony DeAngelo, one of three newcomers to the defense corps along with Scott Perunovich and Adam Boqvist. “When they had them, Sorokin was there to make some big saves. They had more puck control but it didn’t make a big difference for us. We were tight. We were in good spots.”
Vegas held the edge in high-danger chances skating five-on-five, 14-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
“[The defense] cleared traffic,” said Sorokin, who has won seven straight and allowed seven goals in that span. “I can see the pucks.”
Barzal was placed on injured reserve a day after the Islanders announced he was out indefinitely with a lower-body injury. He and Scott Mayfield, who is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury and who joined Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock as sidelined defensemen, were hurt in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime road win against the Lightning.
Barzal, who missed 21 games from Nov. 1-Dec. 12 with an upper-body injury, could not put weight on his left leg after blocking a shot late in the third period. Roy said he did not know whether Barzal would be available before the end of the regular season on April 17.
“We’re pretty banged up,” said Bo Horvat, who took defenseman Adam Pelech’s stretch pass and got to the crease to slip the puck through Ilya Samsonov’s pads for a 1-0 lead at 18:21 of the first period. “We’ve got some really key guys out of the lineup. But the guys we’ve brought in and have slid into the lineup have been playing awesome for us.”
Vegas spoiled Sorokin’s shutout bid as Brandon Saad got the rebound of defenseman Nicolas Hague’s shot to tie it at 1-1 at 7:40 of the third period.
The Islanders also beat Vegas (31-17-6), at the time atop the NHL standings, 4-0 on the road on Jan. 9. The Islanders were still just 16-18-7 at the time but president/general manager Lou Lamoriello, before the game, expressed full confidence his team could make a playoff push. That game was a signature moment in the Islanders’ turnaround while Vegas is on a 3-8-3 skid since that loss.
“I feel like a couple of weeks ago we were in a pretty big hole,” Nelson said. “So we talked about stringing together some wins and having the belief and the confidence that we can go out there and win on any given night. With all the injuries piling on, there’s really no other option. It just goes to show you the fight we have in the group.”
Pure Rocky.
Notes & quotes: Hudson Fasching (upper body/injured reserve), who missed his 11th game, rejoined the Islanders for the morning skate after a conditioning stint with their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport . . . Roy had this reaction to Sorokin’s first-star honor after he went 3-0-0 with a 1.33 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage. “I said to Sorokin the other day, ‘Do you know when I love my backup the most? When they’re sitting on the bench.’” . . . The Islanders’ 14 shots were the fewest Vegas has allowed in team history.
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.
More Islanders
