Ilya Sorokin dominant in a season-defining week for NY Islanders versus NHL's best

New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin has returned to his old form as of late. The Russian goaltender secured three wins in a row this week, taking down some of the league's best, the Tampa Bay Lightning twice and the Colorado Avalanche. He capped it off by tying the Isles franchise leader in shutouts, by notching the 25th of his career.

Ilya Sorokin's past three games

Sorokin kicked off his week against the Lightning at home, where the Isles took home a 2-1 victory. The 30-year old made 30 saves on 31 shots, good for a .968 save percentage, and an impressive 3.73 goals saved above expected. The goals saved above expected stat basically takes the expected goals for the opposing team and subtracts the actual goals scored. Sorokin deserved the shutout in this one, the only goal to get by him was a bad angled shot that deflected in off his glove. A goal I'm sure Sorokin would've wanted back.

Then, the best team in the NHL came to town, the Avalanche. Who only had one regulation loss in their first 26 games to start the season. Sorokin, along with a strong offensive night by the rest of the team, led them to a 6-3 win on home ice as well. Sorokin would save 35 shots in this one, good for a .921 save percentage.

Sorokin and the Isles would then head down to Florida, where they would meet with the Lightning once again. He would make up for that weak goal scored on Tuesday night with a 2-0, 32 save shutout win in this one. As mentioned earlier, the 25th of his career, tying him with Glenn "Chico" Resch for the top spot on the Islanders all-time shutout leaderboard. Also, Sorokin had a 4.22 goals saved above expected, meaning he didn't allow the Lightning to score just about 8 goals that they were suppost to score on him this week.

High praise all around for Sorokin

Hall of Fame goalie and Isles Head Coach Patrick Roy had very high praise for Sorokin following Saturday night's game. "He was outstanding. He was outstanding from the start of the game." Roy said, "He makes it look easy and that's great goaltending. I remember from myself, if everything looks easy, I knew I was having a good game."

Longtime Islander Casey Cizikas also got in on the praise. "You got to give a shoutout to Sorokin tonight." Cizikas said, "If it wasn't for him then I don't think we'd be standing here talking about two points. He was excellent tonight, he made massive save after massive save. He kept us in that game and gave us a chance."

But for Sorokin, he keeps it cool as always, focusing more on what's ahead instead of stats. "I'm not really focused on this." Sorokin said. "Maybe after my career, I'll see it and say 'Wow, that's great!' But today I'm living in the moment and just trying to enjoy the game."

For as big of a week that he had, Sorokin also had praise for the way his team has played in front of him. "I think we just do the right things, play smart and disciplined." Sorokin said. "But tomorrow is a new day, and we should continue to do the right things, playing disciplined with calmness and swagger."

The reasoning for the surprising success of the Islanders this season is not just one man alone, but Ilya Sorokin has been absolutely fantastic lately.