The New York Islanders won their final game before Christmas, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 at PNC Arena on Saturday night.
Sebastian Aho, Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat, Mike Reilly and Anders Lee all scored in the win. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes had a contribution from their Sebastian Aho, as well as from Teuvo Teravainen, Jaccob Slavin and Stefan Noesen.
Ilya Sorokin made 37 saves for the Islanders. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 22 shots for the Hurricanes.
But that’s just the box score. Here are the key takeaways from the night that was in Raleigh.
Everyone In On The Effort:
Six different Islanders had multiple points against the Hurricanes.
Anders Lee led the way with three in his second multi-point game of the year. Meanwhile, Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri, Bo Horvat, Mathew Barzal and Mike Reilly all had two.
With his effort, Barzal reclaims the title as the Islanders’ leading scorer this season with 36 points to his record. Noah Dobson had an assist, raising his total to 34.
Nelson Pushing For 40:
Brock Nelson added to his team-leading goal total on Saturday against Carolina.
Nelson has led the Islanders in goals in each of the last two seasons, and it’s almost become expected of him to be the team’s most productive scorer. However, Nelson is now on pace to accomplish something he has never done before.
With 16 goals through 33 games, Nelson is on pace to reach 40 goals for the first time in his 11-year career, which would surpass his personal best of 37 back in 2021-22.
If Nelson does reach the 40-goal benchmark, he will be the 13th player in Islanders history to do so and the first since Lee in 2017-18.
Grateful For The Goalies:
We say all the time how fortunate the Islanders are to have the goalie tandem of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov in their crease every night.
But on this night in particular, the Islanders should be even more grateful after looking at the state of Carolina’s goaltending situation.
The Hurricanes have struggled with poor goaltending this entire season, relying on the inexperienced Pyotr Kochetkov against the Islanders. Kochetkov’s backup on Saturday, by the way, was Yaniv Perets. The 23-year-old went undrafted this past summer and has only started 11 games at the professional level, none of which came in the NHL.
As for the Islanders, Sorokin was as reliable as ever, keeping his team ahead all night against the high-volume Hurricanes, who refused to go away.
Blocked Shots The Difference:
The Hurricanes are notorious for firing pucks at the net with reckless abandon. At one point earlier this season, they attempted 101 shots against the Islanders.
What’s the best way to defend that many shots? To get in front of some of them.
The Islanders blocked 23 shots against the Hurricanes. Jean-Gabriel Pageau had the most with four.
On the penalty kill in the first period, Alexander Romanov was fearless by stepping in front of a massive slap shot from Michael Bunting without hesitation.
Romanov instantly keeled over and went down to the ice after taking the shot to the midsection. But even after being helped off the ice by a trainer, he never left the bench and quickly returned to the ice to finish killing off the penalty.
Gauthier In Over Wahlstrom:
The biggest question heading into the game for the Islanders was who would play alongside Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom.
It was revealed come warmups that head coach Lane Lambert had opted to go with Julien Gauthier over Oliver Wahlstrom, sticking with the third line combination that’s proven to be the most effective for the Islanders this season.
Wahlstrom got the start on Wednesday against the Washington Capitals, his first in over eight games, while Gauthier was out due to taking a stick to the eye earlier in the week.
With Gauthier back healthy to face Carolina, Wahlstrom’s demotion back to the bench clearly states his role within the Islanders organization as nothing more than depth forward.
The former 2018 first-round pick has just five points in 18 games this season and has played in just two of the Islander’s last 11 contests.
Up Next:
The Islanders head into the NHL’s three-day Christmas, winners in seven of their last 10 contests. At 41 points, they sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
They’ll resume their schedule on Wednesday, Dec. 27, at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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