Ilya Sorokin helped the New York Islanders defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets 1-0 at UBS Arena on March 23, stopping all 26 shots to secure his seventh shutout of the season and earning his sixth Iron Man mask as player of the game.
The achievement matches the single-season team record for shutouts, a mark previously set by Chico Resch in 1976, Semyon Varlamov in 2021, and Sorokin himself in 2022. Sorokin is now the only goaltender in Islanders history to record seven shutouts in multiple seasons.
“He’s so solid,” Anders Lee said after the game. “I thought he saw a lot of pucks through screens. It’s a defensive core that looks for sticks really well, [and] I’m sure you noticed in the third period we’re in the shot lane as wingers, but when they throw it six feet past us and it gets tipped, that’s just a hell of a play to defend. They had some great high tips tonight and [Sorokin] found those.”
Head Coach Patrick Roy praised Sorokin’s consistency: “Longevity is probably the first word I’m thinking about when you break records. Obviously [Sorokin] has been solid for us and [has] been playing really good hockey. There’s a lot of good goaltenders that [have played] for the Islanders, I mean Billy Smith, Chico Resch and those guys, so it’s always an honor for any of our players.”
Sorokin started both games during back-to-back nights against Montreal on Saturday and Columbus on Sunday; this was his third career shutout while starting both halves of such sets. Reflecting on his performance after Sunday’s win, Sorokin said: “After yesterday’s game, it’s important [to] continue to do what I [have done] all season. I try to play simple [and the] guys played behind me very well [and] we played very disciplined.”
This season Sorokin holds a record of 26-17-2 with a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.53 and save percentage (.913), ranking him among league leaders across these categories.
