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The New York Islanders picked up their second straight home win to begin the season, shutting out the Arizona Coyotes 1-0 last night.
Scott Mayfield was out of the lineup for the Islanders after blocking a shot last game, so Samuel Bolduc made his season debut on the bottom pairing with Sebastian Aho.
The Islanders came out really strong, with the second line generating a couple good chances just in the first few minutes, and New York building a bit of momentum. Then even despite a four-minute penalty, the Islanders managed to kill it off without allowing any good chances (but did follow that up with a fairly low-event power play of their own). The Islanders went on to outshoot Arizona 11-3 in the opening frame, and while New York wasn’t necessarily peppering Karel Vejmelka with a ton of high-danger chances either, the Islanders still had to be pretty happy with their first period.
Then early in the second period, the Islanders ended up back on the power play, and Mathew Barzal capitalized, one-timing a great shot past Karel Vejmelka to put New York ahead.
The teams traded power play opportunities after that, but after neither team could capitalize, the Islanders continued to just about completely limit chances for Arizona. By the end of the second frame, they were outshooting the Coyotes by a margin of 26-6.
The Coyotes did seem to wake up a bit for the third period, and Ilya Sorokin started needing to make some quality saves to preserve the one-goal lead. However, the Islanders managed to recover and really shut down any opportunities in the back half of the frame, keeping the puck down ice through a lot of the remainder of the period. While Arizona did pull the goalie to try to try it late, the Islanders were getting in lanes and blocking shots, and hung on for the 1-0 win.
This was a great win for the Islanders, completely shutting down the Coyotes’ offense for most of the game. Arizona got almost nothing going through the first 40 minutes and when they did press a bit in the third period, Sorokin was there to hold the lead. It’s the second game in a row where the Islanders’ defensive effort was great, and gives hope that they could be strong enough to have success despite a lack of scoring, so long as they’re able to limit chances like they’ve been able to do in prior years.
I’d also note that while quality of competition may be brought into the argument, this is a much stronger Coyotes team than we saw last year. With the additions of Jason Zucker, Matt Dumba, Sean Durzi, Alex Kerfoot and Logan Cooley to the lineup, the Coyotes are going to cause some trouble this year, even if they’re not quite going to be a playoff team. The Coyotes are capable of scoring, New York just did a great job shutting them down.
For the Islanders, the second line also continues to look great. The trio of Brock Nelson, Pierre Engvall and Kyle Palmieri were generating chances on most shifts, and outshot opponents 9-3 while on the ice together (according to NaturalStatTrick.com).
It’s also just a nice touch to also see the Islanders score on the power play. After ranking 30th in the league last year on the man advantage, we can only hope it’ll be an area of improvement.
So far, so good for New York. They were able to limit the Coyotes to just 14 shots all game, and are 2-0-0 on the season as a result.
Their next game will come on Friday, as they wrap up their three-game homestand with a big test against the New Jersey Devils.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Islanders announce 23-man roster
Ross Johnston claimed off waivers by Ducks
Islanders start the season strong with win over Sabres 
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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