Against All Odds, Islanders Deal Vegas Final Blow In OT
While shorthanded, Jean-Gabriel Pageau went 1-on-1 against Mitch Marner, before sending his bench into a frenzy after beating Akira Schmidt high blocker side for the 4-3 OT winner.
LAS VEGAS — At 2:54 of the overtime frame, the New York Islanders were called for too many men for the second time in the contest. The odds of coming away victorious dipped drastically — the kind of bad beat that usually sends you right to your bank app to make sure you are still okay.
Like the Islanders did to win the 2025 Draft Lottery — 3.5% long shot — they defied odds yet again, courtesy of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who wasn’t ready to fold a winning hand.
After winning the defensive zone draw — he found himself 1-on-1 vs. the dealer, Mitch Marner.
Instead of going by the book, dumping the puck or skating to the corner and pinning the puck against the wall — the equivalent of checking the hand and hoping for a push — Pageau pushed all his chips in. When he saw a shooting lane, he called his shot, going against the grain to beat Akira Schmid and deal the Golden Knights a losing hand, sending them out of their own house a few chips lighter.
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“I just took him 1-on-1 and took a chance on the shot, and I guess that’s what you do in Vegas, right?” Pageau said postgame. “Take a chance and play the odds and put the puck on net, and it went in. So, we got the two points. We got a game tomorrow, so we want to go back tomorrow and play the same way.”
While the Islanders didn’t play a perfect road game — they blew a 2-0 lead and had to reshuffle the deck to even force overtime — there were still plenty of winning cards in the deck.
Emil Heineman continued to be a force, scoring his seventh goal of the season off the rush, to move within three goals of his career-high. I’d be bluffing if I said he’d have the impact he’s had so far.
Bo Horvat hit a blackjack on that goal, as he recorded his 21st point of the season after earning the primary assist.
Then Matthew Schaefer — if I were a betting man, I’d say cash that ticket for the Calder — scored on the power play, roofing one blocker side — to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead with two minutes to go in the first.
That was his sixth goal of the season to move tied with Cale Makar for the NHL lead amongst defenseman, also tying Ivan Demidov for 13 points for the rookie lead.
Horvat also collected his 22nd point, earning the secondary assist.
Then, Vegas decided to triple down, scoring the three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead with 9:15 to play in the third.
But Patrick Roy and the Islanders elected to go all in and came through with the extra attacker courtesy of a Mathew Barzal one-time dagger. Schaefer recorded his second point of the night, his third multi-point performance of his young career, while newcomer Jonathan Drouin recorded his sixth point in three games, with a beautiful thread-the-needle play to find Schaefer at the point:
“It’s pretty easy. I mean, all I have to do is pass over to Barzy and it’s in the net,” Schaefer said. ‘So, yeah, I mean, the goal would not have gone in if Drouin didn’t find me there.”
Schaefer moved ahead of Demidov to end the night leading all rookies in points with 14.
We need to revisit Vegas’ third goal because the Islanders tried to challenge it and got dealt a bad beat.
After not electing to challenge what seemed like goaltender interference after Shea Theodore pushed Sorokin’s right pad into the net with 1:04 to go in the second, Patrick Roy elected to challenge Reilly Smith’s 3-2 go-ahead tally after Brett Howden pushed Kyle Palmieri into Sorokin, impacting his ability to do his job.
“Rule 69.1 says that when the player is pushed into the goalie,” Roy said. “So I don’t know if the writing means something anymore. If it doesn’t —if that’s not the case —you have to redo the rulebook.”
The Islanders penalty kill, fortunately, remained perfect on the night, going 5-for-5 to improve to 10-for-11 on this road trip and 23 for their last 25.
“We have a lot of trust in the way we’re killing the penalties right now, and Boughner deserves a lot of credit for working so hard with our guys, and our guys deserve a lot of credit to put a lot of pride into it,” Roy said. “But at the same time, it allows you to take chances. Example, on that challenge call. I mean, if you didn’t trust, you would not challenge, but you believe that you’re going to kill it.”
What will be overlooked in this one is another Ilya Sorokin masterclass performance. He won his third straight game, turning aside 26 of 29, and is 4-0-1 over his last five games with a 1.75 GAA and a .939 SV%.
The Islanders will look to continue cleaning house when they battle the Utah Mammoth tonight at 9 PM ET.
