{"id":171786,"date":"2026-03-23T07:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T07:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/171786\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T07:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T07:56:09","slug":"islanders-get-back-into-playoff-spot-hold-off-red-hot-blue-jackets-1-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/171786\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders get back into playoff spot, hold off red-hot Blue Jackets 1-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Bo\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Mar 22, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Bo Horvat (14) celebrates his goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets with teammates during the first period at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

ELMONT, NY \u2014\u00a0Bo Horvat\u2019s first-period goal and Ilya Sorokin\u2019s heroics got the New York Islanders back to winning ways, securing a 1-0 victory over the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night at UBS Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sorokin made 26 saves in the win, saving his heroics for the final barrage of Jackets pressure in the final three minutes that saw the Islanders pinned back for much of that span. It was a quick turnaround for the star netminder, who was pulled during Saturday night\u2019s 7-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter yesterday\u2019s game, it was important to continue to do what I do all season,\u201d Sorokin said. \u201cThere was nothing bigger I could do. I just tried to play simply, and the guys played behind me very well. It was a big game tonight, and we played very decently.\u201d<\/p>\n

That makes seven shutouts this season for Sorokin, tying a single-season franchise record with Chico Resch and Semyon Varlamov.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I had a game that I was not 100% happy\u2026 you want to play right away,\u201d Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said of Sorokin. \u201cYou want to have a chance to play even the next night. For some reason, your focus is better. Ilya is a person who loves to compete, and he did a really nice job. It\u2019s not easy coming back after a couple losses like we had, but he showed a lot of character.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the win, the Islanders move back into a playoff spot after dropping their final two games of their Canadian road trip. Sunday night\u2019s two points allowed them to leapfrog over the Detroit Red Wings for the second and final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

They also managed to draw level with Columbus on 85 points<\/a>, though the Blue Jackets have a game in hand and still hold third place in the Metropolitan Division \u2014 the final automatic playoff qualifier that ensures either of the East\u2019s division winners is avoided in the first round of the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets had been one of the hottest teams in all of hockey entering Sunday night\u2019s tilt. On a seven-game point streak, they had just two regulation losses in their last 25 games, going 19-2-4 during that stretch.<\/p>\n

Horvat gave the Islanders the lead 1:25 into the game when he got on the end of an Anders Lee alley-oop pass off the left boards. Coming down the left wing, he sniped his 29th goal of the season over the shoulder of Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to be good on both ends of the rink and thankfully, scoring at crucial times is a part of that,\u201d Horvat, who now has seven game-winning goals this season, said. \u201cI\u2019m happy that one went in early, and we did a great job of keeping it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offense and the space to create it dried up amid a playoff-like matchup. Though the Islanders were not short of opportunities to extend their lead. A power-play that had scored six times in their last six games went 0-for-3 across the first 45 minutes of play.<\/p>\n

They also had a second goal waved off with 7:54 remaining in regulation. Horvat sent a shot off the pads of Greaves that ultimately slid with Columbus winger Mathieu Olivier\u2019s into the net as he was trying to quell an on-rushing Lee. Columbus challenged as Lee, who was pushed into Greaves, made contact with the netminder\u2019s stick as he scrambled to get back into position. It was deemed enough to be goalie interference, and New York\u2019s insurance was no more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said that Anders went in [to Greaves] on his own,\u201d Roy said. \u201cWell, I guess I have a different opinion. But why was Olivier so mad? Because he knew he pushed Anders in the net, and he put the puck himself in the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on the Islanders, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 22, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Bo Horvat (14) celebrates his goal against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27976,9,11,10,49,51,50,539,319],"class_list":["post-171786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-islanders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}