ELMONT, N.Y. — Fittingly, it came down to a shootout between the Islanders and Vegas, between the well-liked goalie of the present on Long Island in Ilya Sorokin and the beloved netminder of the past in Robin Lehner. Those two were clearly the fan favorites at UBS Arena.
Vegas won a 4-3 shootout on Sunday afternoon as Lehner stopped attempts from Anthony Beauvillier and Oliver Wahlstrom while defenseman Shea Theodore, who also scored two goals, and Nicolas Roy beat Sorokin.
Sorokin made 30 saves for the Islanders (8-12-6) while Lehner made 30 saves for Vegas (20-11-0), which has won five straight and eight of nine.
During the game, the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association announced a suspension of cross-border games through the three-day holiday break that starts on Thursday. That postpones the Islanders’ scheduled home game against the Canadiens on Monday night. The Islanders also had two games postponed in late November during the height of their COVID-19 outbreak.
Theodore’s slap shot past Sorokin’s glove with Lehner off for an extra skater tied it at 3 with 47.1 seconds left in regulation.
Theodore’s power-play slap shot through traffic from the blue line at 5:46 of the third period had given Vegas a 2-1 lead. But Kieffer Bellows tied it at 14:19 with a wrist shot past Lehner’s left pad after Zach Parise corralled the puck at the Vegas blue line and fed him in the high slot. Bellows earned his first NHL fighting major at 18:16 of the second period, dropping the gloves with Max Pacioretty after his hard hit on defenseman Andy Greene.
Cal Clutterbuck’s apparent go-ahead goal at 16:43 of the third period was challenged successfully by Vegas for offside.
The Islanders honored Lehner, who played a lone season on Long Island in 2018-18 as he detailed his battles with addiction and mental health issues, with a video tribute during a first-period stoppage. To acknowledge the cheers, Lehner – who shaved off his beard for the occasion – tapped a tattoo of Long Island he placed on the left side of his neck.
Greene was honored in a pre-game ceremony for playing in his 1,000th NHL game on Nov. 15 at Tampa Bay.
Also before the game, the Islanders placed Matt Martin and defenseman Robin Salo in COVID-19 protocol. They join Mathew Barzal, who missed his third game after testing positive in Detroit on Tuesday.
Right wing Kyle Palmieri was also unavailable for the Islanders after exiting Thursday’s 3-1 win over the visiting Bruins in the second period with a lower-body injury.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead at 6:56 of the first period as Jonathan Marchessault, from off the right post, knocked in the rebound of defenseman Zach Whitecloud’s initial shot. Brock Nelson’s power-play goal at 11:08 of the first period – an attempted feed to the crease from the right circle that ricocheted in off the inside skate of defenseman Brayden McNabb – tied it at 1.
Both goalies stayed sharp through a goal-less second period. Lehner turned aside a dangerous shot from Austin Czarnik in the low slot at 7:50, then denied Cal Clutterbuck’s backhander at the crease at 9:27. Meanwhile, Sorokin stretched to stop Marchessault at 11:52 then smothered Nicolas Roy’s shot from the slot at 14:38 after another flurry around the Islanders’ crease.
