After getting out to a quick 2-0 lead, the New York Islanders defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on opening night.
ELMONT, NY -- After getting out to a quick 2-0 lead, the New York Islanders defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on opening night.
LINES:
Mathew Barzal-Bo Horvat-Simon Holmstrom
Pierre Engvall-Brock Nelson-Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Hudson Fasching
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech-Noah Dobson
Alex Romanov-Ryan Pulock
Sebastian Aho-Scott Mayfield
Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov
Rapid Recap:
With 6:20 to go in the game and the Islanders gaining momentum, Cizikas deflected a point shot from Adam Pelech, giving the Islanders a 3-2 lead.
Buffalo challenged for offsides, but the call was upheld.
Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves on 29 shots and is off to a strong start to his 2023-24 campaign. Sorokin was a runner-up for the Vezina Trophy last season.
The youngster Devon Levi made some key saves for Buffalo, keeping the game tied in the third period, including a great glove save on Mathew Barzal's power-play slapshot.
Levi made 26 saves on 29 shots on the night.
Brock Nelson had two points in the game, scoring the Islanders' first goal of the season just 5:57 into the first period. Pierre Engvall had the assist after winning a race and winning the board battle before feeding Nelson in the slot.
With 1:42 remaining in the first, Nelson banked a shot off Kyle Palmieri before the puck ricocheted off Buffalo defenseman Connor Clifton. Ryan Pulock was credited with the secondary assist.
The Islanders led 2-0 entering the second period until Jordan Greenway got Buffalo on the board 4:15 into the middle frame.
Down 2-1 entering the third, Buffalo forced a turnover 2:34 in, and Mittelstadt backhanded one past Sorokin, tying the game up at two.
The Islanders were able to bounce back from a tough second period, finding their game in the final ten minutes and building off the momentum from the UBS Arena crowd.
Bo Horvat made a key clear in the game's final seconds to end Buffalo’s hopes of tying the game as the clock expired.
Brendan Yerkes contributed to this story.
NEXT: The Islanders host the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night at 7:30 PM.