Islanders 6 (EN), Avalanche 2: Nelson nets pair, Sorokin strong in season debut

6 days ago  /  Lighthouse Hockey  /  Read Time: 3 minutes

Well if you’re gonna make it that easy, then thank you... | Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images


The Islanders’ best performance of the young season yields their first win. The New York Islanders took advantage of a porous Alex Georgiev and some friendly Colorado Avalanche mistakes to get their first win of the season in Denver.
The result moves the Isles to 1-1-1 on the season with one game left on this three-game road trip. It was also a huge, good sign that Ilya Sorokin looked sharp and nimble in his first start of the season following back surgery that kept him from appearing in any preseason games.
It was a deserved win and a promising effort for the Isles, even though the opponent was missing several players and received a bad outing from their goalie and their star defenseman.
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Things started poorly, with some fella who goes by Calum Ritchie being left all alone to tap in his first NHL goal 1:01 into the game. Both Mike Reilly and Scott Mayfield followed the same man to the left of Sorokin’s crease, leaving Ritchie wide open at the back door.
But Anders Lee answered four minutes later by banking the rebound of his own near-post shovel attempt off of Georgiev’s leg to tie it at 1-1.
Then late in the period, Kyle Palmieri scored on a speedy (!) breakaway (!!) of his own making, as he intercepted a high pass at the Isles blueline with his glove and took off the other way. Palmieri may have nudged the puck too far ahead of him in the Avs zone, which had the happy consequence of luring Georgiev out of his crease for a failed pokecheck attempt.
That left Palmieri with an easy open net to make it 2-1 at 18:13.
Rather than sit on their good fortune, the Isles delivered their best period of the season in the next frame. Sorokin didn’t see a shot for 14 minutes, and Brock Nelson scored his first two goals of the season on consecutive shifts halfway through.
On the first one, he picked up a loose puck high in the Avalanche zone and deked both Oliver Kylington and Georgiev out of their shorts for a pretty finish to make it 3-1.


Brock Nelson, that is SO disgusting. pic.twitter.com/0iAUPhedP6— NHL (@NHL) October 15, 2024




Nelson’s second one was shorthanded. He read and intercepted a blind pass from Cale Makar — who also had a share of blame in the first goal, and had a bad night overall — to head in alone and beat Georgiev clean. That made it 4-1 with 9:46 to go in the second, and when the Avs finally started to get some chances again, Sorokin was there.
However, the Avalanche made things uncomfortable by getting one back early in the third period, just before a power play expired. Casey Mittlestadt finished a pretty cross-slot passing play just 39 seconds in.
It was a bit of tough luck for the Isles in two ways: The original penalty, which they killed most of at the end of the second period, was a sketchy call on Max Tsyplakov. And then the actual goal definitely could’ve been challenged for goaltender interference — and would’ve been overturned by the standard of some calls thus far in the NHL this year — as Mikko Raantanen was parked in the crease and his leg tangled with Ilya Sorokin’s.
Patrick Roy looked like he wanted to challenge but was maybe talked out of it by his staff, as the risk of giving the Avalanche another power play would’ve given them a great opportunity to pull within one.
Anthony Duclair regained the three-goal cushion a few minutes later after some great patience and vision from Alex Romanov, who was down in the left wing corner after the top line did well to keep the puck in the zone. Makar was again part of the failure of duty, letting Duclair slip away around the net to be uncovered while receiving Romanov’s pass. He slipped it around Georgiev who was unaware of Duke’s new location.
The rest of the game was fairly comfortable; the Avalanche moved the puck well and created some threats, but even for the most war-beaten Isles fan, it never felt like they’d get three more past Sorokin.
After Anders Lee caused an extended shift for all five skaters when his shot at an empty net missed and created an icing, Mat Barzal made no doubt on the next shift, scoring from just outside the Isles blueline to finish things off.
This and That

We’ll see what the recovery report is for Sorokin, but he looked very good. Full flexibility. And not rusty, showing a good combo of positioning and reflexes to read plays.
The penalty kill: still frightening, while still softening the blow with a timely shorty.
The scorers: Lee, Palmieiri, Nelson and Barzal (albeit into an empty net) each got off the schneid.

Up Next
The road trip concludes Thursday in St. Louis, where the Blues have their home opener Tuesday night.
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