Long Island's Matt Coronato relishes first matchup against Islanders, the team he grew up with, as he continues growth with Flames

CALGARY, Alberta — Matt Coronato knew exactly when the Islanders, the team he rooted for growing up, were coming to town to face his Flames.

“Yeah, it’s definitely cool,” the Greenlawn product said of facing Long Island’s team for the first time. “It’s an exciting night for me. I grew up watching the Islanders all the time.”

The Islanders were at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday night for the penultimate match of their season-longest, five-game road trip. Coronato, who turned 22 on Thursday, was playing in his 49th NHL game after the Flames selected him 13th overall in 2021.

The 5-10, 183-pound Coronato, who entered Tuesday with five goals and two assists in 13 games, skated on second-line center Mikael Backlund’s right wing along with Blake Coleman.

He drew a substantial media crowd in the Flames’ dressing room after their morning skate to hear him describe his excitement at facing the Islanders, a game Coronato admitted he circled on the calendar.

“I think my buddies at home definitely still root for them,” Coronato said, before quickly adding, “along with the Flames, of course. I’m sure they’ll be cheering for the Flames tonight.”

And his father, Richard?

“I think he’s rooting for the Flames, yeah,” Coronato said.

Coronato played for the Long Island Gulls Under-16 AAA team as well as St. Anthony's High School before leaving in 2018 to play for Salisbury Prep (Connecticut).

The Flames drafted Coronato after he notched 48 goals and 37 assists in 51 games for the Chicago Steel of the USHL in 2020-21. Two seasons of collegiate hockey at Harvard followed before Coronato made his NHL debut on April 12, 2023.

He split last season between the Flames’ AHL affiliate in Calgary and the NHL, where he compiled three goals and six assists in 34 games.

But he’s playing with more maturity in his game this season.

“He’s really impressed me, honestly, since he came from Harvard,” Flames fourth-line center Kevin Rooney, a former Ranger and Devil, told Newsday. “Seeing him get more comfortable this year, you kind of see the player he can be. He’s a heck of a player. He’s got a really good shot. He’s a big part of our team right now.

“He’s really good at using his body to get to the inside. That’s something, as a young guy, is tough to do in this league. I’ve been really impressed with how he’s been able to get pucks off the wall and get them right to the inside and that’s where he scores his goals. He has a heck of a shot but he can muck it out, too.”

Flames coach Ryan Huska said he’s seen growth from Coronato, “in many different areas of his game.”

“He still has a lot of swagger offensively with the puck,” Huska said. “But I think now, with where we’re using him, there’s even more of a belief that he can impact the game in different ways.”

Rooney said he asked Coronato before the game which Islanders’ players he used to follow when he was growing and Coronato said, “a couple of the guys that are still on the team.”

But Coronato specified former Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy as a player he particularly followed. The slick-skating Leddy was with the Islanders from 2014-2021 and has now been with the Blues since 2022.

“My favorite was Nick Leddy,” Coronato said. “I used to play defense when I was little so I always loved his skating.”

Notes & quotes: Defenseman Alexander Romanov returned to the Islanders’ lineup after missing the last seven games and 10 of 11 with an upper-body injury. He retook his spot on the top pair with Noah Dobson while rookie Isaiah George was instead paired with Ryan Pulock. “It’s nice to have guys back and Romy is an important player on our team and is certainly going to help our defense,” coach Patrick Roy said . . .Semyon Varlamov got the start as Roy alternated his goalies for the fourth straight game . . . Defensemen Grant Hutton and Travis Mitchell and forward Hudson Fasching were the healthy scratches . . . Former Flames coach Brent Sutter, who won two Stanley Cups with the Islanders and was recently selected for induction into the team’s hall of fame in January, attended the game.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.