The Skinny: Isles 5, Rangers 0

"The Skinny" 

By Eric Hornick

Game 15

Isles 5, Rangers 0

Bo Horvat scored twice, Jonathan Drouin and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each added a goal and two assists, and Ilya Sorokin made 33 saves for his 23rd career shutout as the Islanders blanked the Rangers 5-0 before a sellout crowd of 18,006 at Madison Square Garden.

Horvat and Drouin each scored in the first period, and Horvat's second goal, late in the second period made it 3-0. Pageau added an empty-netter before Anders Lee completed the scoring. Sorokin did the rest as the Rangers, who have now gone 129:48 at home without a goal, were shut out for the fifth time in seven winless games at home (0-6-1). 

The Isles have won two straight road games and are 3-1-1 in their last five games, as they opened a seven-game road trip. Game two of the trip is in New Jersey on Monday. 

The Scoring:  

1st Period

Bo Horvat (10) Emil Heineman (4), Kyle Palmieri (7) 10:29 NYI 1,NYR 0

Jonathan Drouin (2) Anthony Duclair (2), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (5) 19:27 NYI 2,NYR 0

2nd Period

Bo Horvat (11) Jonathan Drouin (7), Mathew Barzal (9) 18:42 NYI 3,NYR 0 PPG

3rd Period

Jean-Gabriel Pageau (5)EN Simon Holmstrom (5), Jonathan Drouin (8) 17:59 NYI 4,NYR 0

Anders Lee (3) Jean-Gabriel Pageau (6), Anthony Duclair (3) 19:30 NYI 5,NYR 0

The Skinny

Horvat extended his point streak to five games (5-2-7); at game's end he was tied for the NHL lead with 11 goals… Mathew Barzal now leads the team with nine assists… The Isles killed both Ranger power plays; they have killed 15 of the last 16; and scored on the power play (now 3 for the last 28)….The Rangers have scored only six goals in the worst home start in their 100-year history; it is the fewest scored through seven games by any team since World War II…The Isles scored four goals in the final 2:01 of periods…Ilya Sorokin (3-5-2) beat his good friend Igor Shesterkin (7-2-1) for only the third time in ten head-to-head meetings…The Isles scored at least five goals at The Garden for the first time since January 13, 2018 (7-2)…The Isles now have eight skaters with at least ten points; they are the first team in the NHL to do that this season…Emil Heineman extended his point streak to three games…The Isles scored only five goals in the season series with the Rangers last season....All five goals and ten assists came from forwards.

Milestone Men

• Ilya Sorokin passed Billy Smith for 2nd place on the club's shutout list with his 23rd; Chico Resch had 25 for the Isles.

• Ryan Pulock remains tied with Jean Potvin for seventh place among Islander defensemen with 167 assists.

• Anders Lee played his 856th Isles game, passing Matt Martin for 8th in club history.

• Bo Horvat remains at 299 NHL assists.

• Mathew Barzal is one assist behind John Tonelli for 7th in club history.

Return to Form

Ilya Sorokin was 2-4-1 (.868 and 3.75) in his first seven games this season;  he is 2-0-1 (.952 and 1.30) since October 30th giving him the best goals against average and best save percentage of any NHL goalie who has made at least three appearances in that span.

Blanking the Blueshirts

Sorokin is the third Islander goalie to shut out the Rangers multiple times, joining Semyon Varlamov (5) and Jaroslav Halak (2).

What a Start

Bo Horvat is the fourth Islander in the last 35 years to record at least 11 goals in the first fifteen games:

• Bo Horvat 11 2025-26

• John Tavares 12 2017-18

• Mark Parrish 13  2001-02

• Derek King 11 1991-92

J Drouin to J Drouin

A half-century ago, Jude Drouin's pass to JP Parise ended the Rangers' 50th anniversary season; tonight, as the Rangers were having one of their Centennial celebrations, Jonathan Drouin had one goal and two assists.

Most Ice Time by an Islander Teenager, Game

1. Matthew Schaefer 27:40 10/25/2025 at PHI (SO)

2. Eric Brewer 26:57 4/3/1999 vs ANA (OT)

3. John Tavares 26:46 4/11/2010 vs. PIT (SO)

4. Matthew Schaefer 26:35 10/13/2025 vs. WPG

5. Matthew Schaefer 26:04 10/11/2025 vs. WAS

A 20-year-old Islander has played more than 27:40 seven times (Bryan Berard – four times; Travis Hamonic -3 times). The youngest of these was Hamonic (at MTL) on February 10, 2011, when he was 20 years, 178 days old; Schaefer will not hit that age until March 1, 2028.

Most Games Played as an 18-Year-Old (Isles history)

Tim Connolly 81   (14-20-34)

Dave Chyzowski 34  (8-6-14)

Mathew Schaefer 15 (5-6-11)

Nino Niederreiter  9    (1-1-2)

Brent Sutter 3             (2-2-4)

Brad Dalgarno 2         (1-0-1)

Paul Boutilier 1           (0-0-0)

Lots of Travel

The Isles are in a stretch where they are playing 11 of 14 games on the road. They are 3-3-2 in this stretch (1-1-1 home, 2-2-1 road).

Did Somebody Say Comeback?

The Isles have five come-from behind wins this season, including two when they trailed in the third period. The opponents have come-from-behind to win four times this season, including three in the third period.

Overtime

The Isles are 0-0 in games decided by an overtime goal, and they are 0-2 in shootouts. 

Empty Netters 

The Isles have scored 3 empty-net goals and allowed 2.

Building on a Lead

The Islanders have had a two-goal lead 7 times this season:

• Score the next goal: 2 times

• Allowed the next goal: 3 times

• Game ended with 2-goal difference: 2 times

Last Year vs. This Year

• 2025-26  7-6-2 for 16 points in 15 games

• 2024-25  6-6-3 for 15 points in 15 games

Offense from Defense

• Today:   0-0-0

• Season: 6-23-29

• Last Season (Final) 32-129-161

Home and Road

The Isles are 7-6-2 overall; they are 4-3-1 at home and 3-3-1 on the road.

The Rangers are 7-7-2 overall; they are 0-6-1 at home and 7-1-1 on the road.

East and West

The Isles are 5-4-2 against the East (3-3-1 vs. Metropolitan and 2-1-1 vs. Atlantic) and 2-2-0 against the West (0-2-0 vs. Central and 2-0-0 vs. Pacific).

First Things First

The Isles are 4-1-2 when scoring first and 3-5-0 when allowing the opening goal. 

The Shots

Isles      9-12-5=26

Rangers  8-7-15=30

The Isles are 1-5-1 when they outshoot their opponents, 1-0-1 when the shots are even and 5-1-0 when the opposition has more shots.

In the Nets

Ila Sorokin made 30 saves; he is 4-4-2 this season and 4-6-2 vs. Rangers.

Igor Shesterkin made 21 saves; he is 4-6-2 this season and 9-9-1 vs. the Isles. 

Special Teams

The Isles were 1-2 (3:48); the Rangers were 0-2 (4:00).

The Isles are 4-2-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 3-4-2 when they do not. The Isles are 3-3-2 when they allow at least one power play goal and 4-3-0 when they do not.

The Isles are 5-1-0 when they outscore the opposition on special teams, 2-3-1 when they are outscored, and 0-2-1 when special team goals are equal.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 7-1-2 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-5-0 when they do not. 

One-Goal Games

The Isles are 3-1-2 in games decided by a single goal including 3-1 in regulation. They are 0-0 in games decided in overtime and are 0-2 in shootouts. The Isles are 2-0 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs     

Including tonight, the Isles are 0-2-0 on the front end and 2-0-0 on the back end this season. The next back-to-back will be on November 13-14 in Vegas and Utah. 

Including tonight, the Isles are 3-2-0 when the opponent is on the back end, including 1-0-0 when the Isles also played the previous day.

Ice-time Leaders

Isles: Ryan Pulock (24:22); Rangers: Adam Fox (26:27)

Mathew Barzal led Isles forwards (21:58).

Face-offs

Isles 30, Rangers 26 (54%)

Jean-Gabriel Pageau won 12 of 19 for the Isles. JT Miller won 11 of 20 for the Rangers. 

Hit Count

Isles 18 (Alex Romanov and Casey Cizikas -4)

Rangers 13 (JT Miller -5)

Fights 

None. Season total: 2 (Mayfield, McLean) 

 

Blocked Shots

Isles 17 (Scott Mayfield -5)

Rangers 14 (Braden Schneider -3)

For the Analytics Crowd 

Corsi: All situations: Isles 56, Rangers 64

Corsi: 5-on-5: Isles 44, Rangers 46

 

5-on-5 leaders:

Isles: Bo Horvat +10

Rangers: Two with +5

High Danger Scoring Chances (per Natural Stat Trick)

All situations: Isles 9, Rangers 10

5-on-5: Isles 8, Rangers 6

Scratches

(Pierre Engvall-LTIR), (Semyon Varlamov-IR), (Ethan Bear-IR), (Max Shabonov-INJ). Kyle MacLean,  Adam Boqvist.

Games Lost to injury: 59. (Last season's total: 304)

The Ironmen

Kyle Palmieri is the Islanders' ironman, having played 213 consecutive games. Casey Cizikas (123) and Anders Lee (106) are the only other Isles to have also played every game since the start of last season.

National TV Games 

The Isles are 1-1-0 in games that air on one of the NHL's US national broadcast partners. Their next appearance will be on TNT on December 9th vs Vegas.

Matinee Isles

The Isles are 1-1-1 in matinee games this season; the next matinee will be at 3:30pm on November 22nd against St. Louis. The NHL considers games that start before 5:00 local time to be afternoon contests. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, the Isles are 16-18-13 in matinees.

Challenges

Isles: 0 successful, 0 failures  

Opponents: 0 successful, 3 failure (No hand pass – WAS 10/11), (No interference – DET 10/23), (No offside – WAS 10/31)

Hockey Opps: 0 favorable, 0 unfavorable

Quickies (Two goals in under a minute)

For (2): DET 10/23, CBJ 11/2

Vs (1): BOS 10/28

Quick Responses (One team scoring within a minute of other team)

Isles responses (3): OTT 10/18, SJS 10/21, BOS 11/4

Opponent responses (2): WPG 10/13, CAR 10/30

Multi-Goal 3rd Period Comeback Wins 

For (0): 

Vs (0):  

Last Minute Heroes (Tying or go-ahead goals in the final three minutes of the third period):

For (3): Anders Lee, GWG(18:57)10/18 OTT, Matthew Schaefer, GTG (18:53) and Simon Holmstrom GWG (19:22) 11/2 CBJ

Vs (0):  

OT Winners

For (0): 

Vs (0):  

Shootout Winners

For (0): 

Vs (2):  PHI 10/25, BOS 11/4

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 ***  3. Josh Bailey 1,057 ***

4. Casey Cizikas 912 *** 5. Brock Nelson 901 *** 6. Bobby Nystrom 900 *** 7. Clark Gillies 872 *** 8. Anders Lee 856 …

22. John Tonelli 594 *** 23. Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock 575 *** 25. Ken Morrow and Scott Mayfield 550 *** 27. Duane Sutter 547 *** 28. Mathew Barzal 544

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 ***  3. Denis Potvin 310 …

5. Brock Nelson 295 *** 6. Anders Lee 292 …

20. Kyle Okposo 139 *** 21. Mathew Barzal 137…

29. Ray Ferraro 116 *** 30. Casey Cizikas 115

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 …

7. John Tonelli 338 *** 8. Mathew Barzal 337…

19. Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo 230 *** 21. Anders Lee 226…

27. Alexei Yashin and Duane Sutter 171 *** 29. Jean Potvin and Ryan Pulock 167… 

34. Mariusz Czerkawski 150 *** 35. Casey Cizikas 149

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

12. Bob Bourne 542 *** 13. Anders Lee 518… 

15. Patrick Flatley 488 *** 16. Mathew Barzal 474…

27. Ed Westfall 286 *** 28. Casey Cizikas 264

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467  ***2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Adam Pelech +88 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson +76  *** 18. Garry Howatt +75 ***  19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 *** 21. Ryan Pulock +61 *** 21. Jude Drouin +58 *** 23. Patrick Flatley +57  ***  24. Greg Gilbert +54  

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** 3. Kenny Jonsson 57 ***

4. Ryan Pulock 53…

13. Bryan Berard 31 *** 14. Scott Mayfield 28 *** 15. Vladimir Malakhov 27 *** 16. Adam Pelech and four others 26  

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742***  2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249 ***

7. Ryan Pulock and Jean Potvin 167 *** 9. Jeff Norton 166 ***10. Mark Streit 139 *** 11. Adam Pelech 137… 

17. Bryan Berard and Scott Mayfield 100

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333…

5. Kenny Jonsson 232 *** 6. Noah Dobson 230 *** 7. Ryan Pulock 220…

10. Mark Streit 179 *** 11. Adam Pelech 163…

18. Gerry Hart and Scott Mayfield 128

Goalie Games

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Glenn Resch 282 ***

4. Ilya Sorokin 263 … 

8. Jaroslav Halak 177***  9. Glenn Healy 176 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 173

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304  *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Rick DiPietro 130 ***

4. Ilya Sorokin 129 …

7. Jaroslav Halak 88 ***  8. Roland Melanson 77 *** 9. Semyon Varlamov 76

Shutouts 

1. Glenn Resch 25 *** 2. Ilya Sorokin 23 *** 3. Billy Smith 22 ***

4. Rick DiPietro and Semyon Varlamov 16

On the Farm   

Bridgeport completed a sweep of a home-and-home series with Springfield, as they earned a 6-1 home-ice win on Saturday to improve to 5-6-1-0. Joey Larson had another goal to extend his team-high total to six; no AHL rookie has more goals.

Bridgeport will host a sold-out 10:30am game against Wilkes-Barre Scranton on Wednesday and then visit the Penguins on Friday.

Leaders:  Goals: Joey Larson -6;  Assists: Matthew Maggio 8; Points: Matthew Highmore and Maggio 9

Goalies:  Marcus Hogberg 3-4-1 2.53, .909;  Parker Gahagen  2-2-0 3.29, .883

Season Series Stats

The Isles lead the season series, 1 game to 0 (and 2 points to 0). The teams will meet again on December 27th at UBS Arena before a home-and-home in late January completes the season series.

This was the Isles' first win at MSG in six trips (1-4-1) and just their second in the last ten games against the Rangers (2-6-2).

UP NEXT

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10th  —ISLANDERS AT NEW JERSEY 7:00pm

[MSGSN2 (pre-game at 6:30), WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, Isles + UBS Arena App]

After keeping the Rangers winless at home, the Isles look to be the first visiting team to win at The Rock as they take on the Devils; New Jersey is 7-0-0 at home this season.

The teams met only three times last season, with the Isles winning twice at the Rock and losing in overtime at home. Bo Horvat and Jack Hughes traded overtime goals in the first two games, and Horvat also had the only goal in a 1-0 win at the Rock on April 13th.

The Isles are 8-3-2 in the last thirteen games against the Devils and are 5-1-0 in their last six trips to Newark.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick