In Elmont, credit the entire Islanders team for a 1-0 shut out of the visiting Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night.
“I thought we battled and I thought our structure was great,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “They’re a dangerous team. They had a couple of opportunities, but when they did, our goaltender came up big for us. A total team effort.”
The Isles’ Ilya Sorokin faced all of 14 shots, and stopped all of them for the win.
Mathew Barzal struck at 3:47 of the second period on the power play, for the game’s only goal.
“I just heard about the 14 shots. I didn’t really know because it felt like they had some chances,” Barzal said. “I thought they pressed a little bit offensively tonight, so I think we got some good saves from Sorokin, and I think they fanned on a couple. … But I mean, we’re always going to be pretty solid defensively the way our system is.”
The Coyotes were coming off a 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night, in a game was physical and tough. Only to turn around and face the Islanders this evening.
“We didn’t execute at all,” Coyotes coach André Tourigny said. “We started the game by trying to do too much. Each line has to find their own identity. Not everyone can play that high-possession game. We need to put pucks on the net.”
New York outshot the Coyotes, 24-7, through the first 40 minutes of play.
“I don’t think we shot enough pucks,” Coyotes forward Jason Zucker said. “… I thought we did a lot of good things. We forechecked hard, we got pucks back, we were playing fast. I think our mentality is to hold on to pucks a little too long. We have to start getting some pucks on net.”
Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves in the loss for Arizona.
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