{"id":277470,"date":"2025-11-11T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T10:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277470\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T10:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T10:55:12","slug":"ilya-sorokin-continues-tear-as-islanders-escape-devils-with-ot-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277470\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Sorokin continues tear as Islanders escape Devils with OT win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Islanders ran the full gamut of emotions Monday night, going from tired to resilient to jubilant to deflated to, finally, joyous.<\/p>\n

That joy came as Mathew Barzal converted the game-winner at 1:17 into overtime to hand the Devils their first home loss of the season. Barzal was enveloped in a group hug as the Islanders celebrated a 3-2 win on the back of a red-hot Ilya Sorokin performance and sheer guile.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, tell all [the] bad words about me,\u201d Sorokin said after a 33-save performance in which he bailed out the Islanders for 60 minutes and then some. \u201cAfter this, I play better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewIlya Sorokin is pictured during the Islanders\u2019 win over the Devils on Nov. 10. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Indeed, Sorokin \u2014 whose early-season struggles were the main subject of conversation around the Islanders \u2014 seems to have fully recovered. <\/p>\n

This was his third start in four in which he was the best Islanders player. Without him, it\u2019s hard to believe they would have had a chance of withstanding a New Jersey side that put up 25 high-danger chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought tonight was one of those nights,\u201d captain Anders Lee said. \u201cYou can recognize it, the way he was tracking the puck. In those flurries, he made some really athletic movements after a shot or two and tracking those rebounds down where it\u2019s really tough. He\u2019s battling to make those saves, and he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islanders will fly west for the long-haul portion of this seven-game trip that begins Thursday in Las Vegas knowing that, although they\u2019ve still got plenty to figure out, their goalie can keep them in any game. In large part because of that, the Isles have just picked up their two best wins of the young season.<\/p>\n

This one looked lost at least a few times, including midway through the third period, when Cal Ritchie was called for hooking and Barzal for high-sticking, one after another.<\/p>\n

The Islanders had already let up a power-play goal barely two minutes into the game, but they found their legs on the penalty kill when it mattered and snuffed out four minutes of Devils power-play time as the game hung on edge.<\/p>\n

\"MathewMathew Barzal scores in overtime during the Islanders\u2019 Nov. 10 win over the Devils. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

When the Islanders soon got a power play of their own, they did not let their hard work go to waste. Kyle Palmieri poked in Matthew Schaefer\u2019s rebound to give his team a 2-1 lead with 2:57 to go.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n

Skating at six-on-five, the Devils needed every bit of that last 2:57 to tie the game, but tie it they did as Simon Nemec\u2019s shot ricocheted off Simon Holmstrom and in with 4.7 seconds to go in regulation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Islanders\u2019 disappointment proved temporary. Barzal won it off Jonathan Drouin\u2019s breakaway feed just 1:17 into overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just made a great pass,\u201d Barzal said. \u201c\u2026 Just perfect. Found some space in tight, tried to make something quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islanders had not shown the best of themselves early in the night, when Timo Meier\u2019s power-play goal gave the Devils a 1-0 edge at the 2:12 mark. Even after Bo Horvat tied it off the rush early in the second, this looked like a game the Islanders would have to steal.<\/p>\n

Sorokin, though, kept the Islanders in it, saving them from multiple breakdowns and making a highlight-reel stop on Jack Hughes in the second period with his pad.<\/p>\n

The Devils controlled the run of play through two periods, but just like the Islanders, lacked their usual pace and force of will.<\/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

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t much room to be honest with you,\u201d Drouin told The Post. \u201cIt\u2019s always tight here. \u2026 Thought we pulled through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ugly first periods, of course, do not count in the standings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s gonna be the team we\u2019re gonna be this year,\u201d Barzal said. \u201cGames are gonna be like that. They\u2019re not gonna be pretty. Those are the ones you gotta find a way to win. Those are how teams get in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islanders ran the full gamut of emotions Monday night, going from tired to resilient to jubilant to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,7519,5791,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-277470","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-new-jersey-devils","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277470","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=277470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}