Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves for his 20th career shutout and Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist to lead the New York Islanders to a 4-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Casey Cizikas also scored goals and Alexander Romanov had two assists for New York, which won its second straight game, matching a season high. It was Sorokin’s second shutout of the season.
Adin Hill made 17 saves for Vegas, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. It was just the fifth home loss of the season (17-5-0) for the NHL’s point leaders, who were denied a chance to become the league’s first team to hit the 60-point mark. The Golden Knights were blanked for the third time this season while falling to 6-7-1 against Eastern Conference opponents.
Vegas appeared to take a 1-0 lead at the 13:50 mark of the first period on a power-play goal by Tomas Hertl but the Islanders correctly challenged that Hertl was offside on the play and the goal was waved off.
Lee then gave the Islanders the lead near the end of the period when he slid a Nelson crossing pass from the edge of the right circle through Hill’s pads for his team-leading 19th goal and sixth in six games.
Nelson made it 2-0 at the 5:30 mark of the second period when he zipped a wrist shot past Hill’s glove side at the end of an odd-man rush following a Romanov steal of a Tanner Pearson pass. The score snapped a 17-game goal drought for Nelson dating back to Nov. 27 against Boston.
Horvat extended the Islanders’ lead to 3-0 midway through the second period when he cut down the slot and drilled a behind-the-net pass from Kyle Palmieri past Hill’s glove side for his third goal in two games.
Vegas pulled Hill for an extra attacker with 4:04 remaining in the game and Cizikas sealed the win when he tucked in an empty-netter with 2:34 to go.
–Field Level Media
