It was only one game, but Ilya Sorokin looked like the goaltender who was a Vezina finalist in 2022-23, not the goalie who struggled mightily in 2023-24 in his first start of the young season.
Blowing third-period leads was the norm for the New York Islanders in 2023-24.
While the defense was to blame for most of those blown leads last season, the Islanders also weren't getting enough from their goaltenders, specifically Ilya Sorokin.
Last season, when the Islanders were leading in games, Sorokin owned a 3.66 GAA with a .898 SV%, per NaturalStatrick.com.
On Monday night against the Colorado Avalanche, the Islanders entered the third period up 4-1, their first time entering the final frame holding the lead through three games in 2024-25.
The question was, could Sorokin and the Islanders hold on?
Thanks to Sorokin, the answer was yes.
Through two periods of play, Sorokin wasn't too busy, facing a total of 17 shots.
That didn't mean he didn't have to come up large at all.
He faced 17 alone in the final frame, turning aside 16 of them to help the Islanders to a 6-2 win, their first win of the young campaign.
"In the third, we backed up a little too much, but I guess it was good for Ilya. I mean, he had a chance to get a lot of shots," Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said. "And made some really good saves. He played really well for us.
"I thought he was outstanding. I mean, in the first two periods, I don't think we gave them too much. He made some good saves here and there. But in the third, they were point-blank, really good chances, and the cross pass across and shot from Makar. That was a huge save. And then we scored right after to make it a 5-2, So he was really solid and seemed very confident out there. So that's good for us."
After a gauntlet of a training camp, Roy's first as Islanders head coach, the expectation was that the mentally and physically challenging skates would help the Islanders close games out.
Roy made it clear when he took over on Jan. 20 last season that when the Islanders had the lead, they were going to go for the kill, not sit back.
Although Roy admitted they might have been caught doing that on Monday, Sorokin's play allowed them to keep adding on to their lead rather than having to answer Avalanche goals.
And that's the most important takeaway from Monday night: When the Islanders did sit back, their goaltender rose to the occasion.