Islanders shut out Flyers, keep pace in Eastern wild card race

ELMONT, N.Y. --Ilya Sorokin made 27 saves for the New York Islanders, who kept pace in the Eastern Conference wild card race with a 4-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at UBS Arena on Saturday.

It was Sorokin's sixth shutout of the season, the most in the NHL.
"Ilya did a really good job, especially early," Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson said. "They had a couple (scoring chances) when we were still trying to get to our game a little bit."

Scott Mayfield, Brock Nelson, Samuel Bolduc and Hudson Fasching scored for New York (41-30-9), which has won two in a row. Dobson, Bo Horvat and Simon Holmstrom each had two assists.
The Islanders remained tied with the Florida Panthers for the first wild card from the East, one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Panthers defeated the Washington Capitals 4-2 on Saturday, and the Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-1.
"We know we have to win," New York coach Lane Lambert said. "We feel like if we take care of our business then we'll be in a good spot. We know the result."
Carter Hart allowed three goals on 18 shots before being pulled after the second period for Philadelphia (29-37-13), which has lost six straight (0-5-1). Felix Sandstrom made two saves in relief.
When asked about his decision to pull Hart, Flyers coach John Tortorella said he "just wanted to take him out."

Hart didn't agree with the decision, saying, "I didn't feel like I deserved to get pulled, but it is what it is."
Mayfield gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 14:19 of the first period when his shot from the right point deflected in off James van Riemsdyk
New York was outshot 15-8 in the first period.
"We knew they were going to come out hard in the first, and they did," Horvat said. "I thought we weathered that pretty [well and] our game just kind of took off from there. As soon as we got that first one it just kind of kept going."
Nelson made it 2-0 at 7:50 of the second period, scoring blocker side from the right face-off circle after receiving a stretch pass from Dobson.
"[Sebastian Aho] made a good play on the 1-on-1 to break it up, and then I just tried to get my head up, and [Nelson] does a good job of finding space," Dobson said. "You give him that much time, he's usually automatic from there. So it's a big goal and he did a great job finishing."

Bolduc extended it to 3-0 at 15:06. He took a cross-ice pass from Horvat, skated into the left circle, and beat Hart short side under his right arm.
"He put a couple pucks to the net," Lambert said. "He's got [the] ability to do that. It's a very quick wrist shot, I guess you can say, with a lot of velocity to it, so it's one of the things that he's very good at."
Fasching made it 4-0 at 18:21 of the third period, one-timing a pass from Jean-Gabriel Pageau on a 2-on-1.
NOTES:Nelson has 73 points (34 goals, 39 assists) in 80 games this season. He is the first Islanders player with at least that many since John Tavares had 81 points in 2011-12. … Holmstrom had only one assist in his first 48 games this season.