IIya Sorokin pitches shutout, Mathew Barzal scores lone goal as Islanders defeat Coyotes
Mathew Barzal #13 of the Islanders celebrates his second period goal against the Arizona Coyotes at UBS Arena on October 17, 2023 in Elmont. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
Getting pucks to the net wasn’t the issue. Nor was preventing them as the Islanders allowed their fewest shots on goal since 2015.
It was turning that into an advantage against the youthfully tenacious Coyotes — playing on the second night of a back-to-back and the third game of their season-opening, four-game road trip — that proved difficult for the Islanders.
Still, they managed a 1-0 win on Mathew Barzal’s second-period power-play goal on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. The Islanders have won consecutive games to begin the season for the first time since opening 2014-15 with a four-game winning streak.
“We played a really solid game,” captain Anders Lee said. “For the most part, up until the third when they had a push, we held them to pretty limited shots and gave Sorokie [goalie Ilya Sorokin] time and eyes to make those saves. Yeah, it would be great to pop in another one or two. But it wasn’t one of those games where the chances weren’t there.”
Sorokin needed to make just 14 saves for his 17th career shutout and his third against the Coyotes (1-2-0).
It was the fewest shots the Islanders had allowed since giving up 10 to the Sabres on Feb. 8, 2015.
“[The defense] played really good,” Sorokin said. “There were not many shots today by Arizona so it’s a hard game for a goalie. I tried to focus on the moment.”
“Personally, I’m just hearing about the 14 shots,” Barzal said. “I didn’t really know because it felt like they had some chances. I thought they pressed a little bit offensively. We got some good saves from Sorokin. They fanned on a couple. They over-stickhandled a couple.”
The Islanders outchanced the Coyotes 59-34, blocking 14 shots. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, they had 11 high-danger chances to the Coyotes’ four.
The Islanders got their first power-play goal of the season (on their fifth attempt) for the game’s only goal at 3:47 of the second period as Bo Horvat won an offensive-zone faceoff, got the puck back to defenseman Noah Dobson, who fed Barzal for a one-timer at the top of the left circle.
“It didn’t feel great coming off my stick, to be honest with you,” Barzal said. “Sometimes when you’re creating chances and they’re not going in, you get a little bounce like that. I was happy to see it go in.”
Simon Holmstrom had drawn a slash from Barrett Hayton seven seconds earlier which prevented him from a sure shot from the slot with goalie Karel Vejmelka out of position after turning the puck over to Horvat behind his crease.
The Coyotes, who could not convert on a two-minute, five-on-three advantage that bridged the second and third periods of their 2-1 loss to the Rangers on Monday night, failed to get a shot on a four-minute power play as Hudson Fasching drew blood on a high stick of Nick Bjugstad at 4:38 of the first period.
The Islanders held an 11-3 shot advantage in the first period, then outshot the Coyotes 13-4 in the second period.
But Vejmelka kept it a 1-0 game early in the third period, stopping Fasching off the right post 54 seconds in and then denying Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s breakaway at 1:26.
“I thought we battled,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought our structure was great.
“Lee hits the crossbar. We have a couple of near-misses. Pucks that go wide off rebounds. If there’s one thing I think we could have done a better job and we have to do a better job of moving forward is we’ve got to get more traffic in front of the goaltender.”
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.
More Islanders
