RALEIGH, N.C. — The language used by Mathew Barzal was too specific to be a coincidence.
Asked about Ilya Sorokin following the Islanders’ season-extending 3-2 win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday, Barzal used the Hart Trophy’s criteria to describe the Islanders’ goaltender.
“He’s special,” Barzal said. “He really is. He’s been our backbone all year. You look at the most important players in the league to their teams, I think he’s in the top three or five players in the league.”
If that wasn’t clear before Tuesday, it is now after Sorokin keyed the Islanders with 34 saves to stave off elimination against the Hurricanes, sending both teams back to Elmont for Game 6 on Friday and making sure the Islanders’ season lasts at least a few more days.
It is Sorokin — of course it is Sorokin — who deserves much of the credit for this one, finally leaving his imprint on the series from start to finish on a night when the Islanders may not have had their best, but the goaltender rendered that detail moot.
“I can’t try doing nothing new,” Sorokin said. “I believe in my game, my system and our team. Just step by step.”
Despite the goaltender’s brilliance, this victory did not happen without some nerves. Carolina’s Sebastian Aho cut a 3-1 Islanders lead to 3-2 with 9:32 to go in the third period, setting the stage for a late push in which the visitors hung on for their lives.
Just over a minute after Aho scored, the Islanders’ Sebastian Aho held Derek Stepan on a scoring chance, setting up a gut-check penalty kill. Thanks to some gutsy wall play from Scott Mayfield and Bo Horvat taking a high stick from Carolina’s Aho, the Islanders got through it.
Carolina’s chances would come at six-on-five as well, with the Islanders frantically skating for over two minutes after Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour emptied his net.
Somehow, some way, they got back to the locker room with a win in hand.
“Unbelievable feeling,” Pierre Engvall said. “But at the same time, nothing is done yet.”
Sorokin, who had a .910 save percentage over the first four games of the series, had not at all played poorly before Tuesday and deserved little blame for the 3-1 hole the Isles found themselves in. But he also had yet to definitively outplay Canes goalie Antti Raanta or steal a game for the Islanders, two things that probably need to happen for them to get past Carolina.
Tuesday, he cleared both bars by the end of the first 20 minutes alone, letting the Islanders go into the dressing room with a 1-0 lead after spending nearly the entire period in their own end, scoring only when the puck squirted out to Engvall in the slot and he buried the finish.
By the end of the game, the Islanders had recovered enough of their game to hold their heads high, but no one can argue that this wasn’t Sorokin’s victory in every way. The 27-year-old was nearly untouchable, giving the Islanders runway to fight through their mistakes.
The puck rarely bounced the Islanders’ way over the first four games, but it very much did so on Tuesday. Brock Nelson’s second-period goal, which put the Islanders up 2-0, came after Engvall’s shot hit off the face of Carolina’s Aho, with Nelson sweeping the puck past Raanta before it (or Aho) even hit the ice.
Noah Dobson’s interference penalty later in the period, which negated the final 1:40 of an Islanders power play? That was followed by a four-on-four goal from Barzal.
“We buried our chances tonight,” captain Anders Lee said. “We’ve had those looks throughout the series, we just haven’t been able to put them in. Tonight, we did that and we took advantage of them.”
And of course, all of that was interspersed with Sorokin making save after save as Carolina dominated puck possession, worked below the hashes and tested the goaltender again and again. Paul Stastny managed to beat him on a deflection in the second period, and Aho later added the second goal, but according to the expected goals count, Carolina should have scored nearly four times.
One of those would-be goals came 6:02 into the second with Carolina on the power play, when Sorokin got from right to left in the blink of an eye to deny Seth Jarvis at the backdoor.
“Last game, [he scored] the same goal,” Sorokin said. “Today, I was lucky. He made a shot to my glove. So luck on my side.”
Maybe some luck was on the Islanders’ side as well.
That, and a pretty good goaltender.
