Ilya Sorokin scary good in NY Islanders resilient road win versus Washington Capitals

Ilya Sorokin was scary good and that's exactly the trick the New York Islanders needed.

The Isles found their footing on Halloween Friday night, grinding out a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals to snap a three-game losing streak and salvage their back-to-back road trip.

After Thursday’s 6-2 loss in Carolina — and a day of headlines surrounding Mathew Barzal’s benching — this one was about resetting the tone. Sorokin delivered exactly that, making 22 saves, including 13 in the opening period, to keep his team alive until the offense arrived.

“First of all, Ilya was phenomenal tonight being able to keep us in it like he did,” said Bo Horvat, who scored the game-winning goal. “Without him in that first period, obviously, we’re not standing here happy about the game. So, it was phenomenal by him giving us some time to get our legs under us in a tough back-to-back.”

The Capitals struck first on a Tom Wilson goal, but the Isles’ penalty kill swung the momentum midway through the second. Jean-Gabriel Pageau tied it with a short-handed goal off a perfect feed from Simon Holmstrom, a play that survived an offside challenge. “That goal was all him,” Pageau said. “He gave me the chance to get a stick on it. He made a perfect pass. We want to keep building on that. The PK was huge today. It’s a big difference in a tight game and today it made a big difference.”

In the third, Emil Heineman set up Horvat for a 2-on-1 finish that gave the Isles their first lead, and Barzal, back from his one-game punishment, sealed it with an empty-netter.

“In the second and the third, I thought we started playing better hockey,” said Patrick Roy. “We cut down on shots against, chances against, and we started generating more offense as well. It was a great team effort.”