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EDMONTON – Ilya Sorokin and his posts proved to be more than up to the challenge on Thursday night.
The 30-year-old Russian goalie recorded a 35-save shutout as his New York Islanders got past the Edmonton Oilers 1-0, despite being almost doubled in shots on the night.
“Ilya was outstanding, he made some great saves for us and our power play came through with a big one for us,” said Islanders head coach Patrick Roy. “That’s a big win for us.”
It was Sorokin’s league-leading fifth shutout of the season and 27th of his career.
“We were fighting every minute and we had a chance on the power play and we scored and luck was on our side tonight,” Sorokin said. “They hit two posts, in the last minute and the PK before. It’s a big win against a big team.”
Sorokin did get a bit of help on the night in the third period as Edmonton had a couple of glorious chances clang off of the iron.
It briefly looked like Edmonton had broken the scoreless deadlock on the power play 32 seconds into the third, but an Evan Bouchard shot actually went off the crossbar and then the post before settling under a seemingly unaware Sorokin.
Then, with 35 seconds remaining and their own goalie pulled, Leon Draisaitl rang a one-timer off the far post that would have tied the game.
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“I didn’t see nothing, I just heard the post sound and I thought it was a goal,” Sorokin chuckled. “It started to get loud in the rink and then I saw the puck in the corner and I thought ‘Thank God.’”
It was the Islanders’ first shutout in Edmonton since Game 1 of the 1983 Stanley Cup Final when Billy Smith also made 35 saves.
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“There are not enough words to describe how good that guy is day in and day out for us,” Islanders forward Matthew Barzal said of Sorokin. “His commitment to being a pro is his entire life.
“On the road, you find him in the gym when we get into a new city or on off-days he’s stretching and working out, that’s just who he is, he’s just ready to play all the time and is really the best in the world.”
Edmonton’s Connor Ingram recorded 17 saves in the goaltending duel.
“We had our chances, for sure,” said Oilers defenceman Jake Walman. “When we broke them down, their goalie was there to bail them out. I thought the goaltending all game from (Ingram) and their guy was top-notch. It’s tough to score when the goalies are playing like that.
“We had our looks, we had good looks. We had over 30 shots. For the most part of that game, we got to our game, but sometimes that happens, you run into a hot goalie. It was a goaltending game tonight.”
Anthony Duclair scored for the Islanders (26-16-5), who have won four of their last six.
The Islanders finally broke the scoreless deadlock on their lone power play of the game with 6:18 remaining in the third frame on just their second shot of the period as Calum Ritchie sent a backhand pass to Duclair from the side of the net and he rifled home his ninth of the season.
Playing in his 576th game, Barzal picked up an assist on the play to hit 500 points in his career. New York’s leading scorer now has eight points in his last six games.
“A lot of credit to my teammates, I’m more so a passer my entire career, so a lot of credit to my teammates for putting the puck in the back of the net,” he said. “It takes a lot of people including my family and everybody to get to a milestone like that. It’s cool.”
It was a rare win in Edmonton for the Islanders who had lost the last six trips to town dating back to Mar. 7, 2017. Edmonton came into the game with a 12-1-0 record (41 goals, 23 goals against) at home against them since the 2007-08 season.
Of note from Edmonton’s perspective, Connor McDavid’s point streak, the longest in the NHL this season, ended at a career-best 20 games, during which he recorded 19 goals and 27 assists. He joined Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey as the only three players in Oilers franchise history to put together a point streak of at least 20 games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
