Ilya Sorokin stopped all 21 shots to guide the New York Islanders to a 4-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday. He impressed again despite a slow start to the season. The shutout was the 28th of his career and his sixth of the season, helping the New York improve to 28-19-5.
However, Sorokin’s performance was far from ordinary. His heroics allowed him to tie the franchise record for most shutouts in a single month, matching fellow Russian Semyon Varlamov with his third shutout of the month and second in just four starts.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored twice for New York, which improved their record after losing two straight and three of four. Mathew Barzal added a goal and an assist, Tony DeAngelo scored, and Anthony Duclair had two assists.
The Islanders' coach, Patrick Roy, spoke highly of his team's performance, as they managed to cruise past the Flyers.
“It was a solid team effort tonight,” Roy said. “We talked about it before the game, we wanted to play a solid 200-foot game for 60 minutes, and it's exactly what we did.”
On the other end was Samuel Ersson, who was on the receiving end of New York's offense. He stopped 19 shots for Philadelphia, but he couldn’t keep the Islanders at bay.
The Flyers were playing their first game after a strong three-game road trip, where they went 2-0-1 and capped it with a 7-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.
Philadelphia’s struggles were obvious, and the flat performance drew sharp criticism from coach Rick Tocchet after the loss.
“We had no energy,” Tocchet said, as he made his disappointment clear after the game. “I'm disappointed. That's a division game after coming off the road. … I don't know if anybody played well.”
Meanwhile, Sorokin is not chasing records. They follow him. Earlier this month, he stopped all 44 shots in a 9-0 win over the Devils, earning his 26th career shutout and surpassing Glenn ‘Chico' Resch for the most in Islanders history.
That being said, the Islanders will face the New York Rangers on Wednesday and face them again the following night at Madison Square Garden.
