The Islanders’ playoff chances were slim before the puck dropped against the Rangers on Thursday night at UBS Arena, really no more than a mathematical possibility. But without injured No. 1 goalie Ilya Sorokin, nothing seems possible.
Yet it was weird. Coach Patrick Roy pulled backup Marcus Hogberg after he was shelled for six goals on 27 shots, inserting 22-year-old Tristan Lennox for his NHL debut after he was brought up from the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport on emergency recall. That lasted four minutes, 43 seconds before he gave up his first goal on the first real shot he faced and Roy re-inserted Hogberg.
It was part of a 9-2 loss to the rival Rangers — the most goals the Islanders have allowed this season — that left both teams with a tragic number of one, meaning one point either lost by them or gained by the Canadiens will seal their seemingly inevitable playoff elimination.
The Canadiens, who hold the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, are in Ottawa on Friday night.
Sorokin exited Tuesday night’s 7-6 overtime loss in Nashville after 40 minutes, suffering a lower-body injury when 6-6, 232-pound Michael McCarron fell over the goalie while scoring the Predators’ fourth goal at 13:25 of the second period. Lennox, a third-round pick in 2021 was brought up from the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport on emergency recall to serve as Hogberg’s understudy and ultimately make his NHL debut.
Sorokin, who has been relied on heavily since Semyon Varlamov was sidelined for the season with a lower-body injury on Nov. 29, is 29-23-6 with a 2.75 goals-against average and .905 save percentage in 59 appearances, three short of matching his career high. He compiled those statistics despite missing the bulk of training camp — he didn’t rejoin his teammates on ice until Oct. 2 — and not playing in any of the six preseason games.
Igor Shesterkin stopped 44 shots for the Rangers (37-35-7), his shutout bid ended on Maxim Tsyplakov’s power-play goal from the right dot with 53.6 seconds left in the second period.
But fourth-liner Brett Berard was allowed to skate through the slot to make it 6-1 at 7:54 of the third period to end Hogberg’s outing. Berard also ended Lennox’s outing at 12:37.
The Islanders (34-33-11) looked defensively disinterested and disorganized from the start, a continuation of their unacceptable work in Nashville when they couldn’t hold on for the win after taking a two-goal lead at 16:19 of the third period.
And Hogberg had already surrendered four goals on 15 shots in the first period, a damning combination of the lack of support he received in keeping the Rangers’ attackers away from his crease and his penchant for leaving long rebounds in front, when he gave up a brutal wraparound goal to his left to Juuso Parssinen at 8:19 of the second period after the Islanders took the first nine shots after the first intermission.
Defenseman Ryan Pulock’s turnover at the Islanders’ blue line turned into Mika Zibanejad’s shot over a stretched-out Hogberg’s glove at 3:17 after the goalie bit on J.T. Miller’s faked shot before he fed Zibanejad in the right circle.
Hogberg then kicked out the rebound of Zibanejad’s initial shot for Will Cuylle to knock in at 12:49 of the first period. Vincent Trocheck was left open at the left post and backed in to lift a shot over Hogberg on the power play for a 3-0 lead at 13:51. Trocheck then fed Artemi Panarin on an odd-man rush with 44.4 seconds left in the opening period.
It was perhaps the Islanders’ most shameful 20 minutes in an inconsistent season that is now hanging by a one-point thread.
Notes & quotes: The Rangers swept the four-game season series from the Islanders for the first time since 2003-04, when they won all six games that season . . . Hudson Fasching’s third-period goal was his first of the season . . . Defensemen Mike Reilly, Adam Boqvist and Scott Perunovich remained healthy scratches and Anthony Duclair (leave of absence) missed his fourth game.
