Islanders' Ilya Sorokin allows season-high six goals in loss to Dallas

DALLAS — The Islanders were measuring up against one of the Western Conference’s tougher opponents on Sunday night despite an uncharacteristically shaky outing from No. 1 goalie Ilya Sorokin. They headed into the third period tied after erasing three one-goal deficits.

“It’s always tough, 3-3 and you thought you can win the game,” Sorokin told Newsday. “But one, two, three goals and our chance died. It’s always disappointing.”

The Islanders opened a three-game road trip with a 6-3 loss on Sunday night at American Airlines Arena as their defensive structure, so good for much of the season, buckled against the Stars’ pressure.

“That’s probably the most rush chances we’ve given up the entire year in one game,” said Pete DeBoer, who returned to Dallas for the first time as an opposing coach since the Stars fired him in 2025 after three straight appearances in the conference finals. “I didn’t think the game was on [Sorokin] tonight. The goaltending battle looked fairly even most of the game. I thought we had to do a better job as a group up front and on defense in front of him.”

Sorokin made 32 saves for the Islanders (5-4-2), who had their point streak snapped at five games (3-0-2). Jake Oettinger stopped 17 shots for the Stars (7-3-1), who won their fifth straight and allowed more than two goals for only the third time.

“We just got sloppy, odd-man rushes, blowing coverages in the slot,” defenseman Ryan Pulock told Newsday, referring to the Stars’ three-goal third period. “We didn’t win enough battles all night. You can’t give a team with that much skill time and space in the slot, and we did too much of that.”

Wyatt Johnston snapped a shot over Sorokin’s glove from the low slot to give the Stars a 4-3 lead at 4:10 of the third period. Tyler Seguin sprung Jason Robertson past defenseman Adam Pelech for a breakaway to make it 5-3 at 9:45 as Sorokin allowed a season high in goals. Islanders enemy Mikko Rantanen — he ended defenseman Alexander Romanov’s season a year ago with a boarding major that resulted in shoulder surgery — made it 6-3 at 13:02.

“We didn’t manage the game properly,” Brayden Schenn told Newsday. “We turned over some pucks and didn’t put it to the goal line and, if we did, we didn’t get any stalls on the forecheck. They hemmed us in for a lot of the third period. That’s obviously something we need to clean up against very good teams.”

DeBoer swapped Anthony Duclair onto Schenn’s line with Emil Heineman for the third period in place of rookie Victor Eklund, who skated with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Ondrej Palat.

But the biggest changes during the final 20 minutes came with the defensive pairs. Matthew Schaefer was paired with Pulock, marking the first time this season the lefthanded-shooting Schaefer has not played on his off-side. Pelech was paired with Tony DeAngelo and Schaefer’s usual partner, Logan Stanley, skated with Matt Kessel.

“We weren’t great,” DeBoer said. “Tonight was game 11 and it’s the first night I felt we didn’t have great legs, great juice.”

Right wing Kyle Palmieri tied the score at 2-2 at 4:01 of the second period, lifting a backhander at the crease after Pulock’s blast missed the net and came off the lively end wall.

Justin Hryckowian’s power-play goal gave the Stars a 3-2 lead at 10:52 of the second period, but Schenn got free at the crease for Anthony Duclair’s feed from behind the net to make it 3-3 at 17:45.

But everything and anything the Islanders can accomplish is predicated on elite performances from Sorokin. He allowed two goals in the first period that he usually wouldn’t.

Tyler Seguin beat him over his far shoulder at 11:31 as the goalie did not play his angle correctly. Robertson beat him past his glove to the short side for a 2-1 lead at 14:32 with the teams skating four-on-four after Schenn’s turnover.

“It’s a tough game,” Sorokin said. “Maybe I should give more of a chance for our team. But I tried to do what I can do. They were better.”

Schaefer tied it at 1-1 at 13:43, also with the teams skating four-on-four, lifting a shot on the rush for his 25th career goal, breaking a tie with Hall of Famer Bobby Orr for sole possession of second place on the NHL list for goals by a teenage defenseman. Hall of Famer Phil Housley had 46 before turning 20.

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.