Kahkonen makes 36 saves, Devils shut out Islanders

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Kaapo Kahkonen made 36 saves for his first shutout of the season, and the New Jersey Devils won 4-0 against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Sunday.

It was Kahkonen’s first win with the Devils in his third game since being acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on March 8. It was also the first shutout for New Jersey this season.

“I felt good all night,” Kahkonen said. “It’s important for the goalie to stay calm (when there are so many penalties). It gives the guys confidence when you see somebody that’s confident in there but still sharp. That’s what I’m trying to be every night. It paid off tonight. That was a good team effort.”

Jack Hughes and Timo Meier each had a goal and an assist for the Devils (35-33-4), who were coming off a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday but have won three of their past four games.

“As a player, there’s nothing worse than when you play bad and you have to wait a few days,” New Jersey coach Travis Green said. “The best thing about it was getting to play again today. We had a real good meeting before the game and our team really responded.”

Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves for the Islanders (30-26-15), who are 1-6-1 in their past eight games.

The Islanders are four points behind the Washington Capitals for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The Devils are five points behind the Capitals.

“We're in our building. We need to play better than this,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We all know that. Our guys are smart, they know that. I mean, it's our fans. Our fans deserve better than what we've been showing.”

Meier scored 38 seconds into the second period to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. He tapped in a pass from Hughes at the right post during a 5-on-3 power play.

“It's always important to capitalize on the power play, especially when you get the chance to go out and start with fresh ice on the 5-on-3,” Meier said. “And Jack made an unbelievable play there, and that jump-started our period, and we built off it.”

Hughes made it 2-0 at 2:57, beating Sorokin blocker side from the right circle on a 3-on-1 rush. The play started after Kyle Palmieri collided with Bo Horvat, who had also run into Noah Dobson inside the Islanders' blue line.

“Not sure if there was a little confusion, and it's never a great situation when you have three guys running into each other,” Palmieri said. “I didn't get a chance to look at it. They scored on it. So, that can't happen.”

Alexander Holtz extended the lead to 3-0 at 6:12 when he finished a pass from Simon Nemec in the low slot. Nemec stripped the puck from between Anders Lee’s skates before finding Holtz from below the right face-off circle.

Chris Tierney scored into an empty net at 15:53 of the third period for the 4-0 final.

NOTES: The Devils are 3-9-1 in the second game of a back-to-back. The Islanders are 0-6-3. … The Islanders have been shut out seven times this season and three times in their past eight games. … Sorokin has lost his past six starts.