ELMONT, N.Y. — Semyon Varlamov drew some attention heading into the NHL trade deadline but the Islanders wanted to keep him in a tandem with Ilya Sorokin.
A little more than 24 hours later, Varlamov earned his first shutout of the season with 24 saves as the Islanders opened a two-game homestand with a 3-0 win over the Senators at UBS Arena.
The Islanders (27-25-9), who have won nine of their last 10 against the Senators and five straight at home against them, are 17 points behind the Capitals for the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card spot.
Defenseman Scott Mayfield, who had two assists apiece in each of the Islanders’ first two wins over the Senators (22-36-5) this season, finally made it 1-0 at 9:49 of the third period as he beat Anton Forsberg (24 saves) to the short side from below the right circle. Forsberg had gotten a glove on Mathew Barzal’s breakaway just over a minute earlier. Barzal exited for the Islanders’ room late in the third period.
Varlamov made five saves through the first four minutes of the first period, then used his glove to stop Chris Tierney’s breakaway at 14:04.
Anders Lee scored an insurance goal at 17:25 of the third period and Zach Parise added an empty-netter with 47.3 seconds remaining.
Cal still out
Cal Clutterbuck, newly re-signed to a two-year, $3.5 million extension, missed his second straight game for maintenance.
“It’s day to day,” coach Barry Trotz said. “It’s something that we’ve got to let settle down for him so he can be effective and play the way he needs to play. He plays an abrasive game and you need to be a little bit healthy for that.”
Impending unrestricted free agent defenseman Andy Greene returned to the Islanders’ lineup Tuesday night after also being held out of Sunday’s 2-1 loss in Philadelphia loss for maintenance.
