{"id":403945,"date":"2026-01-13T01:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403945\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T01:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:59:15","slug":"ilya-sorokin-saves-day-for-islanders-best-goalie-in-the-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403945\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Sorokin saves day for Islanders: ‘best goalie in the league’"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAINT PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Ilya Sorokin\u2019s voice was raspy. The result, he said, of a puck hitting him in the neck during morning skate, though one could be forgiven for assuming he\u2019d succumbed to the flu that\u2019s been making its way around the Islanders locker room.<\/p>\n

Just one more thing he had to overcome on the way to a brilliant 33-save performance that backstopped the Islanders to a 4-3 overtime win against the Wild<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were dangerous all three periods,\u201d Sorokin said. \u201c[Kirill] Kaprizov, I just see him. He shoots [in] my glove, I said, \u2018God, thanks. Help me.\u2019 Again, great team. We played tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IlyaIlya Sorokin makes one of his 33 saves during the Islanders\u2019 4-3 overtime win over the Wild on Jan. 10, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Wild tilted the ice for much of the night, forcing the Islanders to come back from three different deficits, but never more so than in the third period. Sorokin made 17 of his saves in the last 20 minutes, vexing the Wild despite the dominance of Kaprizov\u2019s line, as well as superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s proven time and time again that he\u2019s the best goalie in the league. By far,\u201d said Simon Holmstrom, who had three points including the overtime winner. \u201cBoth him and [David] Rittich are the reason we\u2019re here this year. They\u2019ve been massive for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t look now. But as of Saturday morning, Sorokin was the betting favorite to get officially recognized as the best goalie in the league by winning the Vezina Trophy for the first time.<\/p>\n

In both of his two games since returning from a brief absence due to a lower-body injury, Sorokin has been the best player on the ice for the Islanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not winning in Minnesota without goaltending,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cThis is a really good hockey team. So we needed everybody to play solid. I thought he made some great saves, but I thought our guys did a nice job clearing the netfront for him.\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

All four of the Islanders forward lines looked different against the Wild, and they made one change on defense, bringing Adam Boqvist back into the lineup for Cole McWard, who sat as a healthy scratch.<\/p>\n

Anthony Duclair moved up to the top line with Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal. Cal Ritchie centered Jonathan Drouin and Emil Heineman on the second line. <\/p>\n

Jean-Gabriel Pageau played between Max Shabanov and Simon Holmstrom as the third line. And on the fourth, Maxim Tsyplakov drew in for Kyle MacLean, skating with Casey Cizikas and Marc Gatcomb.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Roy demurred when asked if he was wanted to find an endpoint with the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to adjust to the team we play against,\u201d Roy said before the game. \u201cTonight we\u2019re playing against [Minnesota], they\u2019re tied for second overall in the NHL. This is a very good hockey team. We\u2019re balancing our lines.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAINT PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Ilya Sorokin\u2019s voice was raspy. The result, he said, of a puck hitting him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[394,385,140908,99],"class_list":["post-403945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-nhl","tag-patrick-roy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}