Islanders Prospects: Soderstrom Shines with 46-Save Shutout

At all levels of hockey, the Islanders are proving to be rich in goalie talent.

Linus Soderstrom, an Islanders in the fourth-round pick in the 2014 NHL draft, put on the performance of the World Junior Championships so far, shutting out the Americans on 46 shots.

Just last week we wrote about Ilya Sorokin, an Islanders prospect (taken the round before Soderstrom) who is leading the KHL in save percentage. The Islanders also have the third best save percentage in the NHL. Wherever you look, Islanders goalies are stealing games for their team.

For Sweden, it was a very important performance, as they now lead their power-house group including Canada and the United States. If you’re cheering for the American squad, it will be a somewhat bitter-sweet performance as they dominated the game, doubling Sweden in shots 46-23, but just couldn’t put one past Soderstrom.

It’s been interesting to see the young Swede in action as he has been somewhat of a mystery otherwise.

Coming into the tournament, there wasn’t much talk of the role he would have, and his stats were only available in small samples before this year. It has become clear now, after starting the first two games for Sweden, he is their starting goaltender.

His size (6’5” according to NHL.com) has always made him an intriguing prospect, but this year the stats have been there to back it up. In Sweden’s tier 2 league, Hockey Allsvenskan, Soderstrom has posted a 92.7 save percentage despite only winning a third of the games he’s started (12 GP, 4-8).

This may have been Soderstrom’s toughest matchup he’ll face all tournament, but it also means that we will likely get to see him more as Sweden goes deeper into it. He was named player of the game for Sweden and if he keeps this up, he might end up with Goalie of the tournament.

Next: Kirill Petrov Assigned to the KHL

Some more Islanders prospect are in action Monday, as Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier will suit up for Canada against Denmark at 1:00 pm ET. Barzal scored one of Canada’s two goals in their opener against the United States.