Rapid Recap: Islanders 4, Sharks 1

The New York Islanders wrapped up their California road trip on a winning note on Saturday, skating to a 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at SAP Center.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (SHG, 1A), Kyle Palmieri, Ryan Pulock (PPG) and Zach Parise scored for the Islanders, who won in the Shark Tank for the first time since Oct. 14, 2017, snapping a three-game winless streak in Bay Area.

Coupled with a 6-3 win in Anaheim on Wednesday night, the Islanders finish their three-game California swing with a 2-1-0 record, marking their first winning trip to California since the 2015-16 season.
As a result, the Islanders (80 points) leapfrogged the Pittsburgh Penguins (78 points) for the first wild card position in the Eastern Conference and put some distance between themselves and the Florida Panthers (77 points). Both the Penguins and Panthers have two games in hand on the Islanders.

THE SCORING

1st Period
7:31 - SJS 1, NYI 0 - Kevin Labanc opens the scoring for the Sharks shortly after exiting the penalty box (serving the extra two minutes for Andreas Johnsson). Labanc enters the zone in a one-on-one situation with Sebastian Aho and snaps a fluttering puck high blocker side on Ilya Sorokin. Logan Couture and Nico Sturm pick up the assists on the goal.
16:08 - NYI 1, SJS 1 SHG - JG Pageau skates in shorthanded, getting into a footrace with former Ottawa Senators teammate Erik Karlsson. Pageau holds off Karlsson and cuts across the net, going from his backhand to his forehand and tucking it past Kaapo Kahkonen. Casey Cizikas picks up the lone assist.

2nd Period
2:18 -NYI 2, SJS 1 - Kyle Palmieri cuts across the front of the net and deflects a Scott Mayfield point shot through Kahkonen's legs. Noah Dobson earns the secondary assist.

5:24 -NYI 3, SJS 1 PPG - Ryan Pulock steps into a slapper and blasts one through traffic and past Kahkonen. Pulock is set up by a nifty no-look backhand feed from Hudson Fasching along the half wall. Pierre Engvall gets the secondary assist after his initial shot missed the net and rimmed around to Fasching.

3rd Period
5:19 - NYI 4, SJS 1 - Zach Parise skates into the high slot undetected where he's able to tip an Alex Romanov wrister top corner past Kahkonen. Pageau picks up the secondary assist for his second point of the night.

NOTEBOOK

Pageau's shorthanded goal was his third of the season and the Islanders fifth as a team. Pageau is now riding a three-game point streak (2G, 2A) since returning from injury… Josh Bailey missed his second straight game as a healthy scratch, leaving the Islanders lines intact from the back half of Wednesday night's 6-3 win over Anaheim… Pierre Engvall extended his point streak to four games (3G, 2A), his second-longest point streak this season after a six-gamer run with Toronto from Dec. 20 to Jan. 3… Pulock's goal snapped a 13-game drought for the defenseman... Sebastian Aho left the game late in the first period and did not return. Head Coach Lane Lambert did not have an update on his status after the game... Cal Clutterbuck had a game-high seven hits... Bo Horvat had a team-high five shots on goal and seven total attempts...

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Ilya Sorokin stopped 29 of 30 for the win, his first-career win over the Sharks.
Kaapo Kahkonen 29 of 33 in the loss.

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Islanders scored both a shorthanded and power-play goal in the same game for the first time since Nov. 23, 2022 against Edmonton. Pageau scored both the power-play goal and shorthanded tally.
The power play went 1-for-5, while the penalty kill went 2-for-2.

IMAGE OF THE GAME

NEXT GAME

The Islanders return home to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night at UBS Arena at 7:30 p.m. It's also Butch Goring Legends Night and the first 10,000 fans will receive a Butch Goring bobblehead.