Barzal’s big night lifts Isles
Mathew Barzal scored in the shootout and the New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Saturday night, extending their dominant play at home.
Barzal scored in the fourth round of the shootout after Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin denied Flyers captain Claude Giroux’s chance to win the game. After Barzal scored, Sorokin then stopped Jakub Voracek to seal the win.
Sorokin made 30 saves in 65 minutes of play and improved to 9-3-1 on the season.
Anthony Beauvillier scored twice to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead entering the third period.
Giroux answered with a pair of goals to tie the score. Flyers netminder Carter Hart made 22 saves.
The Islanders continued their strong play at Nassau Coliseum, where they are 15-1-2 this season. They also kept pace with the Washington Capitals in the race for first place in the East Division with 52 points.
The Islanders are 16-4-1 in their last 21 games and 21-6-4 over their last 31 games. The Flyers continued their swoon with a 6-10-2 record since they were 114-3 on Feb. 28.
The Islanders also improved to 3-1 in shootouts this season.
Beauvillier opened the scoring beating
Hart on the power play at 12:01 of the first. Matt Martin and Jordan Eberle assisted.
SABRES 3, RANGERS 2
Victor Olofsson tied the game at 16:19 of the third period and Tage Thompson scored the only goal in a shootout to give the Buffalo Sabres a 3-2 comeback victory against the New York Rangers on Saturday night.
Thompson beat Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin with a low snap shot in the second round of the tiebreaker. Buffalo goalie Linus Ullmark denied Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko.
Casey Mittelstadt also scored for the Sabres, and Ullmark made 28 saves in improving to 7-5-3 this season. Buffalo extended its point streak to four games and is 2-0-1 beginning with a victory over Philadelphia that snapped the club’s 0-15-3 skid.
Thompson scored the tying goal with 4 seconds left in regulation Thursday night before the Sabres lost to the Rangers 3-2 in overtime.
Panarin scored both New York goals in this one, giving him 11 on the season. Shesterkin finished with 27 saves. The Rangers remained tied for fifth place in the East with the Flyers, four points behind Boston for the division’s final playoff spot.
Olofsson tied it with a pinpoint shot from the high slot that beat Shesterkin to his glove side.