NEW YORK ISLANDERS NOTES:
LAST GAME
DATE NYI RESULT SCORE NYI SCORERS IN GOAL
Wednesday, Mar. 29 SO Win NYI 2 at WSH 1 Engvall Sorokin (25/26)
Pierre Engvall scored a goal for the second straight game following a scoreless first period, then Kyle Palmieri potted the game-deciding goal in the shootout to help the Islanders defeat the Washington Capitals, 2-1, Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. Brock Nelson and Alexander Romanov each tallied assists on Engvall’s goal, and Ilya Sorokin turned aside 25 of 26 shots faced as the Islanders captured their first shootout victory of the season.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS & UPDATES
Mar. 31 Aidan Fulp and Travis Mitchell have agreed to terms on two-year, two-way entry-level contracts beginning with the 2023-24 season.
INJURIES GAMES MISSED
3 Adam Pelech Dec. 9 – Jan. 21
8 Noah Dobson Jan. 23 – Jan. 28
10 Simon Holmstrom Dec. 23 – Jan. 6
12 Josh Bailey Nov. 29, Feb. 18 – Feb. 24
13 Mathew Barzal Jan. 6, Feb. 20 –
15 Cal Clutterbuck Oct. 13, Nov. 8, Dec. 2- Dec. 6, Dec. 17 – Jan. 3, Jan. 21 – Mar. 9
20 Hudson Fasching Jan. 19 – Jan. 28
21 Kyle Palmieri Nov. 23 – Dec. 13, Dec. 17 – Jan. 21
25 Sebastian Aho Oct. 13 – Oct. 20, Mar. 21 –
26 Oliver Wahlstrom Oct. 13, Dec. 29 –
36 Otto Koivula Mar. 11 – Mar. 15
40 Semyon Varlamov Dec. 19 – Jan. 1
44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau Feb. 14 – Mar. 11
Man Games Lost: 194
RECENT RESULTS
Wednesday, Mar. 29 at Washington W/SO (2-1)
Monday, Mar. 27 vs. New Jersey W (5-1)
Saturday, Mar. 25 vs. Buffalo L (2-0)
Friday, Mar. 24 at Columbus L/ OT (5-4)
Tuesday, Mar. 21 vs. Toronto W (7-2)
Saturday, Mar. 18 at San Jose W (4-1)
VS. TAMPA BAY:
Last five meetings (0-5-0)
Oct. 22, 2022 AMALIE Arena L, 5-3
Apr. 29, 2022 UBS Arena L, 6-4
Mar. 27, 2022 UBS Arena L, 4-1
Nov. 15, 2021 AMALIE Arena L, 4-1
Feb. 8, 2020 AMALIE Arena L, 3-1
2022-23 0-1-0
Franchise History 49-48-3-7
NYI Home 28-21-1-3
NYI Away 21-27-2-4
SEASON SERIES
DATE LOCATION RESULT/TIME
Oct. 22, 2022 AMALIE Arena L, 5-3
Apr. 1, 2023 AMALIE Arena 7:00pm
Apr. 6, 2023 UBS Arena 7:30pm
TEAM NOTES
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
Tonight, the New York Islanders visit the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second of three matchups between the two clubs this season. These teams last met at the beginning of the 2022-23 regular season, on October 22, 2022. The Islanders fell to the Lightning in a 5-3 decision at AMALIE Arena. Tonight, the Islanders will look to earn their first win against Tampa Bay since December 9, 2019, and will face them twice in the next six days. The Islanders enter tonight’s matchup with a 6-3-1 record in their last ten games, after earning their first shootout victory of the season on Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. The Islanders also enter their final back-to-back series of the season tonight, looking to improve to 8-6-1 in front-ends.
MARCH
The Islanders finished the month of March with an 8-3-1 record after earning a shootout victory against the Capitals. Their eight wins in March are the most they’ve recorded in a single month since November. Goaltender Ilya Sorokin backstopped the Islanders to each win they collected last month. Sorokin has an 8-1-2 record in his last 11 starts. He recorded his 28th win of the season and 8th win in March on Wednesday night in Washington, making 25 saves on 26 shots. It was the 20th instance in 54 starts this season that Sorokin allowed one goal or fewer. Sorokin recorded eight wins last month, the first time an Islanders netminder has done so since 2013, and is tied for the franchise record (Nabokov, DiPietro, Salo). Sorokin was tied for second-most wins amongst NHL goalies in March (Skinner, 10). In ten starts in March, Sorokin posted a 8-1-1 record, .919 SV% and 2.29 GAA. He allowed just 23 goals on 283 shots faced, the fewest of any netminder who made at least ten appearances last month. The Mezhdurechensk, RUS native’s 54 starts are tied with Igor Shesterkin for seventh in the league this season. Sorokin has a .924 SV%, third-most amongst NHL netminders with at least 25 games played (Ullmark, Gustavsson). He is also fourth in the league in GAA (2.36, min. 25 GP), and is tied with Darcy Kuemper (WSH) and Alexandar Georgiev (COL) for the league-lead in shutouts (five). The Islanders are third in the NHL in team save percentage (.914) and fourth in goals-against average (2.63) through 76 games.
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING NOTES:
LAST GAME
Lightning 5 vs. Washington 1
The Tampa Bay Lightning earned a second-consecutive victory with a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals March 30 at AMALIE Arena…The Bolts improved to 44-26-6 on the season with a home record of 26-7-5…Tampa Bay finished the season series vs. WSH with a 2-1-0 record…Alex Killorn opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 9:20 mark of the first period when he redirected a point shot from Mikhail Sergachev to give him 24 goals on the season…Steven Stamkos recorded the secondary assist on Killorn’s game-opening goal…With 4.9 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare won an offensive zone faceoff back to Stamkos, who rifled a shot into the top left corner with 2.8 seconds left in the first period for his 32nd goal of the season…Craig Smith got WSH back within one when he scored to make it a 2-1 game with 3:50 remaining in the second period…Just 4:30 into the third period, Anthony Cirelli fired a shot on goal and Pat Maroon was there to jump on the rebound and bury his fourth goal of the season to put the Lightning up 3-1…With 3:32 remaining in regulation, Maroon found himself on the doorstep once again and buried his second goal of the night to make it a 4-1 game with Cirelli and Killorn picking up the helpers…Erik Cernak added an empty-net goal at the 18:06 mark to put a bow on the 5-1 win for Tampa Bay…Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in goal and made 30 saves on 31 shots against for his 33rd win of the season.
PP: TBL – 1-2 WSH – 0-4
SOG: TBL – 34 WSH – 31
Attendance: 19,092
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
The Lightning and Islanders are playing the second of three matchups this season and the second of two meetings at AMALIE Arena…Tampa Bay and NYI will face off two times over a span of six days with the final meeting set for April 6 at UBS Arena…The Bolts are 1-0-0 vs. NYI this season following a 5-3 win Oct. 22 at AMALIE Arena…Brayden Point opened the scoring at the 10:43 mark of the first period to give the Lightning an early 1-0 lead…Matt Martin tied the score at one just 1:46 after Point’s game-opening goal…Brandon Hagel scored his first goal of the season and gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead with 1:57 left in the first period…Corey Perry extended the lead with his second goal of the season 3:12 into the second period…Anthony Beauvillier got the Islanders back within one at the 9:36 mark of the middle frame…Nick Paul scored his first goal of the season with 0.1 seconds remaining in the second period to restore the Lightning’s two-goal lead…Ryan Pulock scored the first goal of the third period with 14:15 remaining in regulation to shrink Tampa Bay’s lead back to one…Alex Killorn put the Bolts back up by two at the 14:08 mark of the third to wrap up a 5-3 win for Tampa Bay…Brian Elliott got the start in goal and made 32 saves on 35 shots against for his first win of the season…Nikita Kucherov is riding a four-game point streak vs. NYI (0-6—6) and has picked up points in six of his last eight home games vs. NYI (2-6—8)…Point has also found the scoresheet in four consecutive games vs. NYI (3-4—7) with three multi-point efforts during that span…Point has recorded three straight multi-point games vs. NYI at AMALIE Arena with goals in all three contests (3-3—6)…Steven Stamkos has picked up points in 10 of his last 12 games vs. NYI (7-6—13) and 15 of the last 18 meetings (10-13—23)…Stamkos has scored a goal in four of his last five home games vs. NYI (4-1—5)…Anthony Cirelli is riding a three-game point streak vs. NYI (1-2—3)…Victor Hedman has found the scoresheet in four consecutive contests vs. NYI (1-4—5)…Andrei Vasilevskiy has won four straight starts vs. NYI with a .933 save percentage and 1.75 goals against average…Vasilevskiy has picked up wins in eight of his last 10 starts vs. NYI with a .917 SV%, 2.51 GAA and one shutout…In six career starts vs. NYI at AMALIE Arena, Vasilevskiy is 5-1-0 with a .937 SV% and 1.84 GAA…The Lightning have won five straight games vs. NYI by a combined score of 22-10…The Bolts are 7-3-0 in their last 10 home games vs. NYI and 7-3-0 in the last 10 meetings overall…Tampa Bay is 55-43-6 with three ties all-time vs. NYI, including a home record of 31-17-4 with two ties…Vincent Lecavalier (23-23—46) holds the Lightning franchise records for career goals and points vs. NYI.
TBL ALL-TIME POINT LEADERS VS. NYI
- Vincent Lecavalier – 46 pts. (23-23—46, 50 GP)
- Steven Stamkos – 44 pts. (20-24—44, 41 GP)
- Martin St. Louis – 37 pts. (14-23—37, 46 GP)
- Brad Richards – 24 pts. (9-15—24, 27 GP)
- Nikita Kucherov – 21 pts. (5-16—21, 24 GP)
TONIGHT’S STORYLINES
Tampa Bay is playing the second game of a brief, two-game homestand tonight…The Bolts will play three of their six games in April on home ice…The Lightning are 26-7-5 at home…Tampa Bay is 12-7-2 against Metropolitan Division opponents and 23-18-3 against the Eastern Conference this season…The Bolts can clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with two points.
INJURIES
2022-23 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 104
Current Injuries:
None
