Islanders remain winless to open the season after loss to Winnipeg
New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin against the Winnipeg Jets in the second period at UBS Arena on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Patrick Roy is not counting moral victories, and they’re not worth two points in the standings anyway. But the Islanders’ coach still likes many aspects of his winless team’s play.
Yet the Islanders might have heard more boos through a 5-2 loss to the Jets were it not for the Monday matinee kids’ day crowd at UBS Arena and the excitement over the presence of No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer, who led the team in ice time for a second straight game with 26:35. He saw time on the power play and penalty kill, matched the team high with four shots and had eight other attempts blocked.
“We’re giving up too many goals,” Ryan Pulock said. “There’s been some breakdowns at times. And the breakdowns we’re giving up are odd-man rushes, breakaway. Hanging Ilya [Sorokin] out to dry there.
“I thought we came out hot. We moved the puck. We created some great scoring chances. We don’t finish, then we find ourselves down 2-0 after playing a good [first] period.”
The Islanders have allowed at least four goals in each of their three losses. Despite moving the puck well, they went 0-for-5 on the power play, a haunting reminder of what led to last season’s playoff miss.
They’ve held the lead for only one minute, 37 seconds over nine periods.
“It’s hard,” Scott Mayfield said. “This is a hard league to climb back into when you’re down. We’ve got to fix our mistakes. We’ve got to find a win.”
Sorokin, in the second season of an eight-year, $66 million deal to be a difference-maker, continues to mix bad moments with acrobatic saves.
He stopped 21 shots against the Jets, who led the NHL last season with 116 points, but his performance was marred by defenseman Logan Stanley’s soft goal through his pads from the left circle as the Jets took a 3-1 lead at 2:19 of the second period.
It came 14 seconds after Jean-Gabriel Pageau, playing in his 800th NHL game, redirected defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s shot from the right point for the Islanders’ first goal.
“It’s not a good start for us,” Sorokin said. “I feel there’s a couple of not perfect plays by me. I should do better in every moment. I should help the team.”
“I’ve got a lot of trust in him,” Roy said. “I know he took the blame for a couple of goals, but on my side, he’s got my trust.”
The three-game homestand concludes on Thursday night against Connor McDavid’s Oilers, a Stanley Cup finalist the past two seasons.
Former Islander Nino Niederreiter sprinted out of the penalty box to set up Tanner Pearson’s easy tap-in off the rush for a 4-1 lead at 12:39 of the second period.
Niederreiter had scored a first-period power-play goal for a 2-0 lead after Morgan Barron converted an odd-man rush to open the scoring at 7:35 of the period by beating Alexander Romanov to the crease.
Emil Heineman’s first goal as an Islander made it 4-2 at 14:45 of the second period.
Eric Comrie made 33 saves for the Jets (2-1-0), who were playing their first road game.
“Their goalie was really good. He was a factor in that game,” Roy said. “Overall, I know it sounds like a moral victory and we’re not in that business, but I feel like if we play like this, we’re going to win our share of games. The guys played with the urgency I was looking for.”
Notes & quotes: The Islanders reassigned rookie Cal Ritchie, a key part of the return package from the Avalanche in the Brock Nelson trade, to their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport as he has recovered from a preseason lower-body injury. Roy said the move was simply to get Ritchie an immediate heavy workload. “He’s going to be probably the No. 1 center down there and he’s going to play big minutes,” Roy said. “He’s going to play on the penalty kill and power play. We are so impressed with him.” . . . Casey Cizikas skated in his 900th game, tying Bobby Nystrom for the fifth-most in team history . . . Bridgeport defenseman Marshall Warren of Laurel Hollow was named the AHL player of the week with two goals and two assists in two games . . . Seaford’s Bella Santana, 10, sang the U.S. national anthem.
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.
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