Yeah, I think I’ll accept a flat home loss to the Wild in exchange for a Garden-silencing shutout of the Rangers any weekend.
The Isles bounced back from a poor Friday night in front of home fans by pleasing
plenty other home fans at Madison Square Garden with a 5-0 shutout of their pajama-clad rivals. It was especially poignant since the Smurfs honored a bunch of their franchise’s greatest moments and memories before being suffocated by their longtime rivals.
Ilya Sorokin had 33 saves for his first zero of the season, Bo Horvat had two more goals (to tie for 2nd in the league), and childhood buddies Jonathan Drouin and Anthony Duclair hooked up for a pretty combo that put an exclamation point on the first period.
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It was only 2-0 after Drouin’s goal with 33 seconds left in the first, but it made the first 20 minutes feel like a proper opening to a good evening, which it turned out to be.
The first period was arguably the toughest, with Sorokin shutting the door early, though the Rangers did manage 18 shots against him in the third with the game mostly out of hand. But the game stayed changeable through most of the second, until the Isles converted on a late power play with 1:18 left — on the 11th penalty Matthew Schaefer has drawn this year.
J-G Pageau actually scored into an empty net to make it 4-0 with 2:01 to go — Igor Shesterkin had been pulled around the 15:00 mark — while Anders Lee delivered the final blow with Shesterkin back in the net, on yet another 2-on-1 conversion by the Isles.
Other Notes
- Sorokin’s shutout was his 23rd all time (regular season), pushing him past Billy Smith for second in franchise history, two behind Chico Resch.
- We had Butch Goring back in the booth for this one, always fun to have him in for these.
- One of Butch’s better moments was frankly noting a Max Tsyplakov drive-by, which is not the route to getting more ice time or a regular spot.
- Damn, the Isles needed this one. It’s the first of seven on “the road,” though these first two are at the Garden and Newark. But starting Monday against the Devils and then heading out to a murder’s row of Western opponents, the rest of this road trip is against the league’s top teams before concluding in Detroit.
- What a night for Horvat, but Drouin too. This was filthy awareness on the power play:
Here was his finish from Duclair:
