Girls Youth Hockey The New York Islanders [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/] begin the first of a back-to-back on Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C. Head coach Patrick Roy has decided to go with Semyon Varlamov (3-4-2, 2.66 GAA, .898 SV%) against the Washington Capitals at 3 PM ET. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjExMDQ5MzE5OTIxMzYyNDIw/usatsi_22148986.jpg] That means Ilya Sorokin will get the nod against the Buffalo Sabres at UBS Arena on Saturday night, with puck drop at 7:30 PM ET. Both pieces of information come from Newsday's Andrew Gross [https://x.com/AGrossNewsday] and The New York Post's Ethan Sears [https://x.com/ethan_sears]. Varlamov is 8-12-4, with a 2.55 GAA and a .921 SV% against Washington, while Sorokin is 6-3-2, with a 2.64 GAA and a .914 SV% against Buffalo. Sorokin stopped 32 of 35 on Nov. 1, the team's first game without Mathew Barzal AND Anthony Duclair in the lineup. The Islanders have played two back-to-backs this season, with Roy going to Sorokin on the front ends and Varlamov on the back-ends twice. He changes his ways this time around.
