SAINT PAUL, Minn. \u2014 It\u2019s tough to top the Islanders\u2019 win over the Avalanche last month, still just one of four times Colorado has lost in regulation, as their best of the year.<\/p>\n
Saturday, though, might have a case.<\/p>\n
The Wild, whose already terrific lineup got an infusion of Quinn Hughes to vault them to Stanley Cup contender status, are one of few teams whose speed can make the 2025-26 Islanders look like the 2024-25 Islanders. Still, the Islanders hung on tight, came back from three different deficits and scored a gutsy 4-3 overtime victory over the Wild in a brilliantly entertaining match capped by Simon Holmstrom\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were so resilient tonight,\u201d captain Anders Lee told The Post. \u201cThey had some good zone time at times. Kept the puck, they do all their loops. Guys battled. I thought our message was: we\u2019ve been coming back all night. We\u2019re not gonna stop. Every time they took the lead, I think our team did exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were moments during the game, particularly when Hughes was on with Kirill Kaprizov\u2019s line, where the Wild seemed inevitable. Even with the two points in hand, there\u2019s plenty of learning for the Islanders to do from this one.<\/p>\n
The biggest lesson, though, is one about their own ability to stay in a game, and to find a way to win it.<\/p>\n
Simon Holmstrom #10 of the New York Islanders scores the game-winning goal against Filip Gustavsson #32 of the Minnesota Wild during overtime at Grand Casino Arena on January 10, 2026 in St Paul, Minnesota. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Islanders went down 3-2 midway through the second period on a Hughes to Daemon Hunt to Kaprizov blur, and their struggling power play allowed an opportunity shortly thereafter. The Wild had a chance to grab control when Tony DeAngelo was called for slashing at 18:18 of the period.<\/p>\n
Instead, after Holmstrom forced a turnover from Matt Boldy, the Swede sped his way down the ice and fed Casey Cizikas short-handed to tie the game 3-3 with 26 seconds to go in the period, setting the stage for the last 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Wild had the better of the chances all game, and rained down pressure in the third. Hughes, spellbinding all night, seemed to have the puck attached to his stick on a yo-yo string, at one point sending Maxim Tsyplakov to the ice with an Allen Iverson-esque crossover.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpected goals against [are] probably not gonna be good for us,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said, but this was a win that advanced stats don\u2019t begin to capture.<\/p>\n
Islanders right wing Simon Holmstrom, back right, celebrates with defenseman Tony DeAngelo and center Casey Cizikas after scoring during the overtime period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild. AP<\/p>\n
Despite the ice tilt against them, the Islanders kept their structure intact, and Ilya Sorokin notched a perfect 17-save third, including a trio of in-tight stops on Danila Yurov around the halfway point of the period, to go with his 33-save night.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s proven time and time again that he\u2019s the best goalie in the league,\u201d Holmstrom said. \u201cBy far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders held fast into overtime, and 3-on-3 hockey \u2014 all their overtime losses have come in shootouts \u2014 continued to be this team\u2019s unsung strength. Holmstrom tucked in a backhander, his second goal of the night, to end it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve been playing some really solid hockey the last 10, 15, 20 games,\u201d Holmstrom told The Post before his three-point night that Lee would call one of the Swede\u2019s best-ever games. \u201cBefore, didn\u2019t really get the bounces or the goals or the points that I wanted. I stuck to it. It\u2019s just a reward from that, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ilya Sorokin (30) reaches for the puck on a shot during the second period of the Islanders\u2019 win over the Wild. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Holmstrom was the Islanders\u2019 best player over 17:40 of ice, sniping one to tie the game at 2-2 in addition to the OT winner and the assist on Cizikas\u2019 short-handed goal. The Islanders had to wait a while for him to get it going this season. He\u2019s making it worth the wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the man tonight,\u201d Lee said. \u201cHe played a man\u2019s game. Was big in those moments. When he had opportunities, he capitalized on them.\u201d<\/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
\u201cOh my god,\u201d Roy said. \u201cHe was, again, outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
So were the Islanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a lot,\u201d Holmstrom said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve proven this entire season the resiliency that we have, the team that we are. They\u2019re a great team, no doubt about it. We had to play some defense for a lot of the game and we did a great job. Sorokie, as usual, came up with some massive saves.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was high-level hockey, the sort you\u2019d find deep in the spring. The two teams that traded blows Saturday can both dream of doing so again late in the calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAINT PAUL, Minn. \u2014 It\u2019s tough to top the Islanders\u2019 win over the Avalanche last month, still just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8194,9,11,6821,10,539,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-96246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-minnesota-wild","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96246","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=96246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}