NOW AVAILABLE! New York Islanders: A to Z will introduce a new generation of fans to the legendary players, magical moments, and colorful 50-year history of the Islanders.
Contributions from Brendan Burke, Stan Fischler, Chris King, and Jiggs McDonald.
You can purchase it HERE
A portion of the proceeds goes to the Islanders Children’s Foundation.
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Can you believe it? It took nearly all season, but the Isles finally won a shootout last night in DC to pad their lead in the race for the top Wild Card spot and carry momentum into April. You can listen to my instant reaction podcast with co-host Andy Francess on the Eyes on Isles Podcast HERE
Through two periods, it was a typical Islanders nationally televised game, meaning that it was uneventful or even boring, as some studio hosts would say. But in the third period, things opened up, and the Isles dominated much of the final twenty minutes, outshooting Washington 13-1 at one point and having several high-quality chances but failing to break through. They survived some Caps chances and an injury scare to Adam Pelech to secure one point.
Then in the shootout, they didn’t score once; they scored twice! First Bo Horvat, then Kyle Palmieri. They had scored just one goal in the shootout this season prior to last night. After Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a fancy first goal to start things, Ilya Sorokin would stop TJ Oshie and Nicklas Bäckström to secure the win and a crucial second point heading into back-to-back games this weekend against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes. Sorokin improved to 8-1-1 in 10 appearances this month, including a 5-0-1 mark in his last six.
"We needed it," Lane Lambert said of the shootout win. "I thought the guys did a really good job, Bo, Kyle, and obviously Ilya. It's an important point for us."
Important it was indeed. It is the 89th shootout win in Islander history, which extends their NHL record (PIT and the NYR have won 87) and ends a seven-game losing streak in shootouts with Washington (dating back to an Islander win on February 20, 2008, with Rick DiPietro in goal) and is only the third Islander win in their last 15 shootouts overall.
It was an opportune time to get off the shootout schneid.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Isles Fix to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.