Goals from Barzal, Nelson, Dobson, and Pulock carry the Islanders to victory on Brent Sutter’s Islanders Hall of Fame induction night.
With nearly the entire Islanders Hall of Fame in the building, the current New York Islanders came to play after a stretch of disappointing home losses.
They limited the San Jose Sharks to just 19 shots on goal, 8 of those coming in the third with the game already essentially locked up.
Brock Nelson scored to surpass Brent Sutter’s 287 goals for the fifth-highest goal-scoring Islander of all time, and Mat Barzal’s assist on Noah Dobson’s late second period goal had him pass Sutter’s position at ninth overall in franchise assists.
It was a nice win against a team the Islanders needed to beat, but it probably won’t change any minds about the direction of this team. If anything, it’s even more of a sign that it might be the end of an era for guys like Nelson, who still have a lot to give, but don’t really fit into the long-term plans for the Islanders anymore.
But for now, it was a solid performance from the Isles as the organization seems to be—for now, at least—trying to stay in the playoff picture.
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First Period
Noah Dobson opened the scoring, or at least seemed to, but Kyle MacLean ran into Alexandar Georgiev just before, leading to it being disallowed for goaltender interference.
Jake Walman broke up a Bo Horvat breakaway, and Ty Dellandrea was called for holding Mat Barzal, sending the Islanders to the power play, which the Sharks killed.
At the end of the period, Alexander Romanov hit the post, so the score remained 0-0 through the first.
Second Period
The Islanders had a ton of chances early in the second but couldn’t find the back of the net. Then, a Mikael Granlund shot went wide on a play where Ryan Pulock took an interference penalty, and the Isles killed that.
2024 first overall pick Macklin Celebrini nearly had a breakaway, but Simon Holmstrom stayed on him and broke up his opportunity.
Shortly after, Mat Barzal picked up a turnover and went the whole way down the ice, scoring to make it 1-0.
But a couple of minutes after that, a harmless-looking shot that might have been deflected from Barclay Goodrow got past Marcus Hogberg to tie the game at 1-1.
40 seconds later, though, Brock Nelson made it 2-1 with a neat little chip shot in the slot up and over Georgiev.
Then, the Isles had a 3 on 1 opportunity, but Palmieri’s shot was saved, and a point blank chance for the Sharks was turned aside.
To close out the period, Dobson made up for his disallowed goal, taking a shot that was deflected by Henry Thrun into his own net, making it 3-1 Isles.
Third Period
To open the third period, Nelson got the puck behind the net, passed it to Anthony Duclair, and he passed it off to Ryan Pulock at the point, who blasted it past Georgiev to make it 4-1.
The Isles cruised to the end from there, picking up a commanding win against the struggling Sharks and living up to Brent Sutter’s Hall of Fame night.
Up Next
Next, the Islanders host the Columbus Blue Jackets, one of the big surprises of this season, on Monday, January 20th. Columbus had a six-game win streak snapped tonight against the Rangers, and they are, in theory, a team the Isles should be chasing for one of the Eastern Conference’s wild card spots, so this should be a much tougher game than tonight’s.