Barzal was back in the lineup<\/a>, too, having missed Thursday\u2019s loss to Carolina as a disciplinary measure for being late to the team bus, but it became clear early in the night that if the Islanders were going to have this one, it would be on the back of their goalie.<\/p>\n![\"Jean-Gabriel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2243878942.jpg\")
Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom of the New York Islanders celebrate a second-period goal during a game against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on October 31, 2025 in Washington, D.C. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Throughout the first period, they struggled to get out of their own zone, let alone generate much, against the Capitals \u2014 forcing the Islanders to fall back on Sorokin, who bailed out his team\u2019s miscues again and again.<\/p>\n
After Sorokin\u2019s own poor start to the season, though, his ability to keep the Islanders in the game marked a crucial development, albeit one the Isles would have liked not to be so dependent on.<\/p>\n
On a night where the Isles didn\u2019t have much left in their legs, having played twice in the previous three days, it was a safety net, and one they desperately needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was, without a doubt, the first star of the game for us, in my mind, because of the way he played in that first period,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cHe looked so solid. Everything seemed so easy and it was a pretty solid performance by him.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the game tied at one entering the third period \u2014 Tom Wilson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau traded second-period goals, the latter coming shorthanded \u2014 and the Isles having struggled to come up with much offense, Roy changed up his lines, putting Barzal and Horvat together alongside Emil Heineman, and using Ritchie as the center between Jonathan Drouin and Kyle Palmieri.<\/p>\n
After 40 minutes of listless hockey, that gave the Islanders life, and Heineman fed Horvat on the rush to make it a 2-1 game 4:29 into the third.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
And, despite going 0-for-5 on the power play, despite playing much of the game in their own end and despite needing to hang onto the lead for over 15 long minutes, that turned out to be enough to walk out with two badly-needed points. A 5-for-5 performance on the penalty kill, including Pageau\u2019s shorthanded goal, didn\u2019t hurt either.<\/p>\n
Barzal, fittingly after his benching 24 hours prior, sealed the game with an empty-net goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a bit more comfortable at center, I\u2019d say,\u201d Ritchie \u2014 who started the game on Barzal\u2019s wing \u2014 told The Post. \u201cI think it\u2019s a bit more natural to me. I\u2019m thinking less, I\u2019d say. Obviously I can adjust to the wing, it\u2019s just gonna take a bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ilya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2243880237.jpg\")
Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders makes a save in front of Jakob Chychrun of the Washington Capitals during the second period of the game at Capital One Arena on October 31, 2025 in Washington, DC. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old, who played seven games with the Avalanche last season, struggled in the early goings, in no small part because he spent the better part of the last 24 hours dealing with travel delays. His third period, back at his natural position, was easily his best, and if there is a longer-term fit there, it would be a boon to the Islanders.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Big as that would be, though, it has nothing on the impact if Sorokin has worked past his early-season malaise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to really talk about my game,\u201d Sorokin said. \u201cJust want to say about team game. I think it was a solid game with discipline, a lot of blocked shots. It was a really, really smart game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roy, though, knows from experience what a game like this can do for a goalie.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a goalie, I\u2019m sure you need a game like this,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd fully, that brings the confidence that will help you get on a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Far more than the result, and far more than the way the Islanders got there in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,133855,58369,5791,575,85,4791],"class_list":{"0":"post-254826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bo-horvat","11":"tag-jean-gabriel-pageau","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}