NY Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin has owned the Tampa Bay Lightning this season

No team in the NHL had an answer for New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin this season quite like the Tampa Bay Lightning — and no team paid for it more. In what can only be described as a complete goaltending takeover, Sorokin dominated the Lightning across three meetings in an 11-day span, turning one of the league’s most dangerous offenses into a frustrated, scoreless, shake-the-head-and-stare-at-the-ceiling mess.

And the numbers? They’re absurd.

Sorokin became just the third goalie in NHL history to beat Tampa Bay at least three times in a season with a goals-against average under 1.00 and a save percentage of .969 or higher, joining a pair of outliers from the 1990s: Florida’s Sean Burke (1998-99) and, fittingly, former Islander Wade Flaherty (1997-98). That’s the entire list. Twenty-six seasons, only three names.

What makes the feat even more remarkable is what the Lightning threw at him. According to Dimitri Filipovic of The Hockey PDOcast, Tampa Bay generated: 220 shot attempts, 97 shots on goal…all in the span of 11 days. Against most goaltenders, that kind of sustained pressure produces goals in bunches. Against Sorokin? It produced exactly three. Three goals. Total.

He shut out the Lightning twice, including a 32-save masterpiece on Dec. 6 that tied Glenn “Chico” Resch for the most shutouts in Islanders history. He outdueled Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jonas Johansson — whoever Tampa started — in every way imaginable. He swallowed point shots, smothered rebounds, robbed slot chances, and stayed laser-calm through waves of pressure.

This was not just elite goaltending. This was franchise-carrying, opponent-demoralizing, historically dominant goaltending.

And for the Islanders, it came at a moment when they desperately needed stability in net.

For the Lightning?

They just ran into Ilya Sorokin — and he owned them.