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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Connor McDavid is a special talent, but last night, it was the Islanders’ special teams that made the difference. The high-powered Oilers scored on their very first shot of the game, a curious start for what would be the Isles’ best overall defensive game in weeks.
Anders Lee and Bo Horvat scored power-play goals, and then short-handed wizard Simon Holmstrom displayed his magic and scored his fifth SHG of the season to extend the lead. If that wasn’t special enough, shortly after, the Islanders successfully killed a 5-on-3 for 58 seconds.
“The power play came up huge tonight, but so did the penalty kill. Special teams are such a big part of the game, and for us to kill those off and get those two power-play goals was huge.” - Bo Horvat
Whatever your thoughts are on ESPN’s coverage of the NHL (and there are many), their cameras find their way into the dressing room before and after games, which gave us this piece of content: Holmstrom awarding Casey Cizikas with a customized “NYI” spray-painted championship belt for his work on the PK.
The Islanders sat back and were outshot 15 to 2 in the final 20 minutes, but Ilya Sorokin had one of his strongest games in weeks and now has earned a point in 10 straight home games (5-0-5) and is 7-1-6 (2.73, .922) at UBS Arena this season. The team also blocked 22 shot attempts in front of him.
Without Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, and Scott Mayfield, who else but Noah Dobson was called upon to match up against McDavid and halted the reigning Hart Trophy winner’s 11-game point streak, keeping him off the scoresheet in 24:54 of ice time. “This is probably the most impressive game he’s had for us,” captain Anders Lee said in The Athletic. “He was hard on their top-skill guys, strong and poised with the puck in the D zone. He made those little plays that helped us break the puck out, and that goes a long way.”
That type of win on ESPN gets the Islanders a few hours of national attention and even some acknowledgment that they are a good team. They’re now three points ahead of last season's pace and have a chance tonight to put forth a better effort on the back half of a back-to-back than they did in Montreal versus the Caps.
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