Sunday\u2019s 1-0 win over the Kraken at UBS on Kyle Palmieri\u2019s shootout winner does soften the blow a little, though. Certainly, it served as confirmation that the Islanders aren\u2019t letting the injuries get them down.<\/p>\n
![\"Mathew](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/13-new-york-islanders-takes-116113933.jpg\")
Mathew Barzal #13 of the New York Islanders takes a shot on goal during the first period when the Seattle Kraken played the Sunday. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a night where you can praise every player on the team, because everyone played so good,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cStarting from the goaltender to the forwards going through the D. Everyone was really good, everyone was doing a great job competing.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can praise everyone, but you can praise some more than others, and that list would start with David Rittich, who finished with 19 saves and was stone-cold in the shootout to stop Eeli Tolvanen and Chandler Stephenson when both had the game on their sticks.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer, who finished with a team-high 27:23 of ice time and played, in Roy\u2019s words, \u201cone of the better games \u2026 since he\u2019s been here,\u201d was not far behind on a night where his details were so precise, his stickhandling so good, his edgework getting him out of so many tight spaces.<\/p>\n
It was Bo Horvat, though, who saved two points in the shootout with the game on his stick, his shot ringing off the top bar and, just barely, in, extending the skills competition and allowing Palmieri to win it in the fourth round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard it hit the post, obviously,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cAs soon as I saw the top mesh move, I knew it was in. Thankfully it did go in, or else I\u2019d look pretty stupid there on the celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was close to a complete performance, and relegated a lifeless defeat against the Blues 24 hours prior to the past. The Islanders were decisive, forechecking hard and dominating possession against Lane Lambert\u2019s side. They controlled territory. The line blender necessitated in part by Pageau\u2019s injury and in part by the tired performance against St. Louis produced solid results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our entries were great tonight,\u201d Anders Lee said. \u201cI thought our D had a great gap, and when you have a great gap and you can transition the other way, they have to throw the brakes on and come back into their zone. I think our transition game helped our forecheck a lot tonight. Sometimes when you get a stick on that D-man and take him into the wall, that puck is free for your guys and [you] get it. And I think we did that pretty often tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee moved up to the top line on the left side of Mat Barzal, who had a terrific night of his own. The Max Shabanov-Cal Ritchie combination that was so effective as a fourth line cemented the third line, with Simon Holmstrom completing it to strong effect. Anthony Duclair, Casey Cizikas and Max Tsyplakov formed the fourth line, while the second line of Emil Heineman, Horvat and Palmieri was untouched.<\/p>\n
The only piece missing from their game was traffic around the net, and in recent years, that might have been enough to let two points slip through their fingers on a night where Rittich and Joey Daccord alike were at the top of their games.<\/p>\n
Not this year. Not Sunday.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/33-new-york-islanders-defends-116113963.jpg\")
New York Islanders goalie David Rittich defends the net from a Seattle Kraken player on Sunday. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
The game went to overtime after Pulock interrupted Mason Marchment\u2019s attempt in the final seconds, Horvat having whiffed on a look at the other end moments earlier.<\/p>\n
Just like in regulation, the Islanders had the better of the chances in three-on-three overtime, and spent the last 18 seconds on the power play, with Horvat\u2019s one-timer forcing Daccord into a great save with seconds to go.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
In the shootout, though, Daccord was made the rare goalie to nab a 65-minute shutout and end up the loser anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had 19 shots, so it tells you a lot how much work the guys in front of me did,\u201d Rittich said. \u201cLots of blocked shots. \u2026 We feel like we\u2019re playing really good hockey now. We just want to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bad news for the Islanders was, at least, all over by the time the game started. Two…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":400822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,21205,189792,405,403,1301,5226,5225,293,5228,5227,2999,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-400821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jean-gabriel-pageau","10":"tag-kyle-palmieri","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-islanders","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-seattle-kraken","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115603412921349718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}