*Photo from Delta Optimist*
Advantage, New York in this series. Ryan Pulock had a goal and an assist, Bo Horvat scored in OT, and the New York Islanders defeated the Dallas Stars with a 3-2 overtime win on Monday night in Dallas.
Though the Islanders have won just two of their last 7 games, they handed the Stars their 5th loss in 6 games and swept the season series against them. Both times came at the hands of Horvat, who also scored in OT against the Stars in January in Patrick Roy's first game as head coach.
Pulock said after the game that "We play good at times and we’ve kind of hurt ourselves in moments, but I thought tonight we stayed with it. We never had any ups and downs. Had a couple of times where we got hemmed into our zone, but we were able to stay structured, stay composed and find a way to get the job done."
The only goal of the first period came from Pulock, who scored his first goal of the season 15:59 into the period to make it 1-0. Matt Duchene tied the game for the Stars with a power play goal at the 7:11 mark of the second period. Kyle MacLean gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead on his second goal of the season, assisted by Pulock and Pierre Engvall.
Logan Stankoven tied the game again for the Stars with 1:43 left in the second, making it 2-2 as Wyatt Johnston got the lone assist. After a scoreless 3rd period, the game went to overtime. 2:54 into overtime, Horvat sealed the win for the Islanders on his 23rd goal of the season, with assists going to Mike Reilly and Mathew Barzal.
Roy said of the win that "I thought every line brought something. The line with MacLean and Martin and Clutterbuck, they played a solid game. They forechecked hard, they got the puck out. Our D played well. I thought Engvall had a super game. He played well, he was skating well. He was dominant out there. I was very happy."
Getting the start for the Islanders between the pipes was Ilya Sorokin, who got the win to improve his record to 18-13-11 in 41 starts. Sorokin stopped 30 of the 32 shots the Stars tested him with, giving him a .938 save percentage.
It was Scott Wedgewood who was the netminder for the Stars, taking the loss as his record dropped to 13-6-5 in 24 starts. Wedgewood turned aside 25 out of the 28 shots on goal the Islanders had, recording a .893 save percentage.
Duchene said of the loss that "We were probably the better team tonight. A lot of good looks. Played most of the third and the second in their end. The first was probably our worst period. You get to overtime, and it’s kind of a coin flip as we always talk about. No time to feel sorry for ourselves. It’s a huge week for us, and we’ve got a big one against Colorado tomorrow."
The Stars take on the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night to finish a back to back with Jake Oettinger to get the start. Sorokin is the projected starter for the Islanders as they face off against the Detroit Red Wings.
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