Sorokin makes 37 saves, Islanders cruise to shutout of Devils

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Ilya Sorokin made 37 saves, and Victor Eklund scored his first NHL goal for the New York Islanders in a 6-0 win against the New Jersey Devils at UBS Arena on Saturday.

“We continue to build our system,” Sorokin said. “I think today we didn’t give them a lot of chances. … I think we had a good PK and really a good power play.”

Eklund, a first-round pick (No. 16) by New York in the 2025 NHL Draft, had a goal and an assist on his 20th birthday. 

“Oh, it felt amazing,” the forward, who played his third career game, said of scoring. “I couldn’t do it on a better day. So, yeah, amazing feeling.”

Brayden Schenn, Casey Cizikas and Simon Holmstrom also each had a goal and an assist, and Matthew Schaefer and Logan Stanley each had two assists for the Islanders (1-1-0), who were 5-for-5 on the penalty kill in their home opener.

Asked what was the most rewarding part of the win, coach Pete DeBoer said, “The guys getting rewarded. We went to work in training camp. It’s going on close to three weeks ago, and there was a lot of stuff, a lot of work in the video room, on the ice, off the ice, trying to establish some things. Guys were really dialed in, and you want them to be rewarded for that commitment early because it promotes a belief in what you're doing, and if you don't win games, then it's hard to build that. So I think it was an important win.”

Nico Daws made 26 saves for the Devils (1-1-0).

“Obviously it (stinks). I don’t think anybody is going to be overly happy with the way they played individually,” Daws said. “I know there’s goals out there I want back. We’ve got to learn from it and move on. It’s a really long season.”

Holmstrom gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 3:32 of the second period. He scored on a tap-in at the left post off a feed from Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

Schenn scored 1:28 later to make it 2-0. Eklund tried to bank the puck off Daws’ pad from below the goal line, but it went right to Schenn, who scored from in front at 5:00.

Bo Horvat’s power-play goal extended the lead to 3-0 at 12:08. After keeping the puck in at the blue line, Schaefer skated it to the top of the slot and found Horvat on the right side for a one-timer from a sharp angle past Daws’ glove.

“We were playing preseason hockey against a team that was probably playing February-type hockey,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “They played on another level.”

Eklund pushed it to 4-0 at 11:32 of the third period, scoring from the low slot after Calum Ritchie chipped the puck to him off the rush.

Ondrej Palat made it 5-0 just 42 seconds later when he buried a cross-crease pass from Cizikas at 12:14, and Cizikas scored on a short-handed breakaway at 18:41 for the 6-0 final.

“I think we’re getting better game by game,” said Horvat, the New York captain. “I think (learning a new system) takes time, but guys are responding well and doing a lot of good things out there. Obviously, there are things we can clean up and things we can work on still. But for the most part, guys are starting to get used to it."

NOTES: Sorokin recorded the 30th shutout of his career and required the fewest games among active goaltenders to reach the mark (310), besting Darcy Kuemper (329). … The Islanders had six players with multiple points. The last time they had as many as five such players in a game was Jan. 6 in a 9-0 home win against the Devils. ... New York has scored 17 straight goals at home against New Jersey dating to the teams’ first meeting last season, a 2-1 Islanders victory here Dec. 23, 2025.