24-15-4<\/a>, 52 points) within three points of the Carolina Hurricanes for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division with a game in hand.<\/p>\nDuclair is the second Islander this season to record a natural hat trick (Bo Horvat), making it the first time that the franchise has had two different players record natural hat tricks in the same season since Pierre Turgeon and Derek King in 1993-94.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mathew Barzal opened the scoring just 1:08 into the game when he one-timed a Ryan Pulock feed from the left circle home for his 11th goal of the season.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Duclair nabbed his first 3:09 later when he kept it himself on a 3-on-1 rush, and snuck a wrister from the left circle past the glove of Devils netminder Jakob Markstrom, who conceded the Islanders\u2019 opening two goals on just three shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07T013030Z_616266569_MT1USATODAY27945480_RTRMADP_3_NHL-NEW-JERSEY-DEVILS-AT-NEW-YORK-ISLANDE.jpeg\" "\\"Sorokin")
Jan 6, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders left wing Anders Lee (27), New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal (13) and New York Islanders defenseman Tony Deangelo (77) celebrate the goal byNew York Islanders left wing Anthony Duclair (11) against the New Jersey Devils during the first period at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Schneidler-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Eight and a half minutes later, Duclair got his second when he was sprung on a semi-breakaway from a Casey Cizikas clear. From nearly the same spot in the left circle, he sniped a wrister just beneath the crossbar to give the Islanders a three-goal lead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hat trick came 3:29 into the second period to put the hosts up 4-0 when a right-circle one-timer from Barzal left Markstrom with no chance.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe played a really good game,\u201d head coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cI\u2019m happy for him. I know it was hard for him to be out as a scratch the last couple of games, so I\u2019m pretty happy to see the way he bounced back tonight. I always thought he had a great shot, and tonight he showed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon Holmstrom made it a five-goal game when he jumped on a spilled puck from Markstrom, circled around the netminder below the goal line, and reached back around the left post to stuff it home for his 10th point in his last 13 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Casey Cizikas got in on the act 1:34 into the third when he drove to the net with a defender draped on him and slid the puck under Markstrom\u2019s pads.\n<\/p>\n
Tony DeAngelo notched New York\u2019s seventh with his first goal since Oct. 23, a wrister assisted by Duclair at the 11:28 mark.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
But wait, there was more. Cal Ritchie made it eight with a breakaway goal with 1:24 to go, before Duclair assisted Cizikas\u2019 second goal just seconds later.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The fifth point increased Duclair\u2019s line to a plus-6, making him the first Islander since 1983 to have that high a plus-minus.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThree goals, two assists, plus-six? That\u2019s a pretty solid game,\u201d Roy said.\n<\/p>\n
All the while, Sorokin blended steadiness with the spectacular to keep the Devils off the scoreboard. The 44 saves were the most he has had in a game since he stopped 45 on Oct. 26, 2023, in a 3-2 win over the Senators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been really good since he\u2019s been with the Islanders,\u201d Roy said. \u201cTo be in that position, you have to have good years. That\u2019s what he\u2019s been doing. Tonight, he was really sharp, moving well, and had a strong game.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more on the Islanders, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 6, 2026; Elmont, New York, USA; New Jersey Devils right wing Stefan Noesen (11) looks for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27976,9,11,10,539,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-91994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-islanders","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91994","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=91994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Ilya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07T013034Z_2118400910_MT1USATODAY27945483_RTRMADP_3_NHL-NEW-JERSEY-DEVILS-AT-NEW-YORK-ISLAND.jpeg\" "\\"Sorokin")
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