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Who’s gonna be the hero? | NHLI via Getty Images
Bo Horvat scored with a nifty backhand on a breakaway as the Islanders continued their insane overtime record (9-0) and salvaged a win from their California swing, defeating the San Jose Sharks, 2-1.
Brayden Schenn made his Islanders debut and was a presence for both the regulation goal for and against, settling in next to Ondrej Palat and the center he’s temporarily bumped to wing, Cal Ritchie. Wearing the #10 ceded to him by new #92 Simon Holmstrom, Schenn was credited with winning 6 of his 14 faceoffs, a blocked shot and a check in 17:26 of ice time.
[NHL Gamecenter | Game Summary | Event Summary | Natural Stat Trick]
The first two periods were not super eventful, though that in itself is a big improvement over the previous two games. There were a few good saves from both star goalies. Tony DeAngelo broke the ice with a shot through traffic midway through the first period. The Isles were victimized by super sophomore Macklin Celebrini finding space just 33 seconds into the second period to tie it at 1-1.
The rest of the second was a standstill, but the Islanders came out with real jump in the third and logged 11 of the first 13 shots. They couldn’t convert though, and every Celebrini rush provided a scare, just as every Matthew Schaefer counter doused the flame.
With time winding down, the Islanders were perhaps gifted with a power play with under four minutes in regulation, when noted pest(ilence) Kiefer Sherwood took a run at Mat Barzal on the Isles forward’s way to the bench. Barzal got a crosscheck back at him, but perhaps Sherwood’s reputation and prior behavior earned him the only call.
As they always do, however, the Isles completely wasted that power play. There was a TV timeout, and Patrick Roy started the second unit, which promptly skated in offside to burn their 30 seconds.
And worse, the officials gave the Sharks a chance of their own when Pelech held Sherwood’s arm on a counterattack after J-G Pageau failed to get the puck in at the Sharks blueline. The Sharks spent the final 1:28 of regulation on the power play and got a couple of golden chances that required five-star saves from Sorokin.
The power play carried into overtime for about 30 seconds of 4-on-3, but the Isles killed that off with some great anticipatory interceptions by Schaefer.
Horvat’s winner came when things were back to 3-on-3 with a great threaded feed from Schaefer, his 26th assist of the year. He got a step around all three Sharks and slipped a backhand through Yaroslav Askarov’s wickets, which proved a better approach than shooting him in the mask.
Up Next
It’s Schenn Packing Day as the Islanders finish this road trip Tuesday in St. Louis, where Schenn will get to pick up his things, do a farewell wave and hopefully take two points from his former team.
The win nudges the Islanders into 2nd in the Metro, a point ahead of Pittsburgh, which lost in extra time (as did Columbus). Both have two games in hand on the Isles.
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