Game Recap: Sharks 2, Islanders 4

SAN JOSE -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a goal and two assists and Ilya Sorokin made 38 saves to lead the New York Islanders past the San Jose Sharks 4-2 at SAP Center on Saturday.

Anthony Duclair, Anders Lee, and Adam Boqvist also scored for the Islanders (29-26-7), who have won four of their past five games. With the win, New York pulls within three points of the Eastern Conference's second wild-card spot behind the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"They played really well, [I] have to give it to them," Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. "At the same time, we didn't have the same jump. It was nice to have those key saves. [Sorokin] played a big role in the first period that's for sure."

Nikolai Kovalenko and Will Smith scored for the Sharks (17-39-9), who are 2-3-0 in their past five games. Macklin Celebrini had two assists to extend his point streak to three games (two goals, two assists), and Alexandar Georgiev made 24 saves.

"I loved our first period," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "Sometimes that's what happens. You don't score in the first [period] with that type of volume of chances and shots; you usually feel like it's going to come the other way. I got to give our guys a lot of credit for what they've gone through these last couple days."

Duclair put the Islanders up 1-0 with a power-play goal at 10:43 of the first period. Duclair took a wrist shot from the top of the right circle, beating Georgiev on the glove side.

Pageau gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead at 19:22 after Noah Dobson fed him a pass at the left dot for a one-timer on the short side.

"I thought we had some really good chances," Pageau said. [The power play] is going to be key for our push to the end of the season."

San Jose outshot New York 20-8 in the first period.

At 6:26 of the second period, Kovalenko deflected Shakir Mukhamadullin's shot from the point to make it 2-1 on the power play.

"I think we did a pretty good job getting in front of [Sorokin, getting] tips," Celebrini said. "I mean, we score a goal like that. For sure, we can do it more, and it's only going to create more traffic for him."

Lee pushed the lead to 3-1 at 1:13 of the third period. After a face-off, Lee took a puck from just inside the right circle and scored with a spinning wrist shot over Georgiev's glove.

"I think we just went to work. I think we do a great job on the forecheck," Lee said. "We are a simple line, we have great communication out there, and we have fun playing with one another."

Boqvist made it 4-1 with a power-play goal at 3:51. Pageau passed to the point for a Boqvist one-timer past Georgiev's blocker.

Smith scored on the power play with Georgiev pulled at 18:33 to cut it to 4-2. After taking a pass from Celebrini at the top of the right circle, Smith fired a wrist shot over Sorokin's blocker.

NOTES: Sorokin recorded 20 saves in a period for the third time in his career and became the sixth Islanders goaltender since 1997-98 to record at least three 20-save periods. The others: Jaroslav Halak (five times), Dwayne Roloson (four times), Semyon Varlamov (three times), Thomas Greiss (three times) and Joey MacDonald (three times). ... Celebrini recorded his 13th career multipoint game and surpassed Patrick Marleau for the third most by a Sharks teenager. The list is topped by Jeff Friesen (20) and Pat Falloon (18). ... Patrick Giles and Vincent Desharnais made their Sharks debut after being acquired via trade. Giles from the Florida Panthers and Desharnais from the Pittsburgh Penguins.