EDMONTON, Alberta — Ilya Sorokin, with plenty of sound structural support from the Islanders’ defensemen, was up to the Connor McDavid challenge.
Of course, there was a dash of good fortune thrown in, too.
“It’s a big shutout against the best player in the league,” Sorokin said.
The goalie’s 35-save masterpiece, his fifth shutout of the season and the franchise-record 27th of his career, paced the Islanders’ 1-0 win over the Oilers on Thursday night at Rogers Place.
Edmonton superstar McDavid had his point streak snapped at a career-high 20 games. He had produced a Wayne Gretzky-like 19 goals and 27 assists in that span.
This despite the Oilers playing up ice most of the game and outshooting the Islanders 23-6 in the final two periods. Anthony Duclair’s goal at 13:42 of the third period on the Islanders’ lone power-play chance stood up.
“I think we had a great game tonight defensively,” Sorokin said. “The discipline was good tonight, just two penalty kills. We were fighting at our net. And luck was on our side tonight; they hit two posts in the last minute. So it’s a big win against a big team.”
Leon Draisaitl hit the far post from the right circle with 36 seconds left in regulation and the Oilers skating six-on-five. Defenseman Evan Bouchard’s apparent power-play tally 32 seconds into the third period was ruled no goal as a video review confirmed the puck hit the crossbar and the far post but never crossed the goal line.
So the Islanders (26-16-5) improved to 2-1-1 on this seven-game road trip with their first regulation road win since Dec. 6 (they were 2-4-2). They also snapped a six-game losing streak at Rogers Place, where they had lost 12 of 14 games since 2007-08.
Connor Ingram stopped 17 shots for the Oilers (23-17-8), but his strong performance was overshadowed by Sorokin’s.
“Yeah, he’s in a zone,” rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer said. “Sometimes I don’t even want to give him a tap [on his pad] but I want to so bad because he’s making so many stops, I need to give him a tap to say thank you.”
All three defense pairs — Schaefer with Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech with Tony DeAngelo and Adam Boqvist with Scott Mayfield — took turns trying to keep the Oilers’ offensive talent to the outside. Schaefer logged a game-high 26:35 and Pelech was on the ice for 24:06.
DeAngelo dived to break up McDavid’s scoring chance at 7:39 of the first period before McDavid recovered to feed Zach Hyman at the crease, where he was stoned by Sorokin.
Sorokin also turned aside in-tight shots from McDavid less than three minutes later, Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin in the first 90 seconds of the second period and McDavid off a rush at 11:12 of the third period.
“I thought we defended really well,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Yes, they had some good looks, and when they had those, Ilya was outstanding. And our power play came through. It’s a big win for us.”
Sorokin was coming off Tuesday’s 5-4 loss in Winnipeg in which he made only 17 saves behind a leaky defensive effort.
NaturalStatTrick.com calculated the Oilers dominated the Corsi for percentage 63.25-36.75 in all situations and had a 19-10 edge in high-danger chances.
The Islanders were being outshot 8-0 in the third period when Draisaitl tripped Schaefer in the offensive zone at 12:00. Cal Ritchie fed Duclair’s rising shot as the Islanders scored their first power-play goal in six games. They were 0-for-7 in that span.
“We talk about the power play each and every day and how we can improve it,” Duclair said. “This is the type of game where we need to bury our chance.”
Roy shuffled his lines quickly, moving struggling Jonathan Drouin — who has gone 24 games without a goal — out of the top six to Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s third line with Simon Holmstrom while using Max Shabanov on Ritchie’s left wing alongside Emil Heineman.
Of course, Ritchie’s trio recorded a dismal Corsi for percentage of 7.14, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
Notes & quotes: Defenseman Cole McWard, a healthy scratch for the third straight game, was named Bridgeport’s lone representative for the Atlantic Division squad at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic on Feb. 10-11 in Rockford, Illinois. McWard has five goals and 11 assists in 29 games for Bridgeport . . . Holmstrom was elevated to the first power-play unit while Drouin moved to the second unit.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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