BROADWAY BLUES! New York Islanders Fall Flat in Loss to Rival New York Rangers

The lights went down on broadway for the New York Islanders on Saturday night.

The Islanders were down 2-0 before the end of the first and the New York Rangers added two more in the second in what would become a 5-0 loss at Madison Square Garden. Rookie Ilya Sorokin was thrust into the game at the last minute after Semyon Varlamov was injured during warmups.

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The young netminder saw 32 shots, while the Islanders only mustered 23 through the 60-minute affair. Sorokin made 27 saves in the loss.

“I think that’s just a really bad outing,” Anders Lee said about the effort on Saturday night. “It’s not representative of how we want to play. Turned a few too many pucks over. Took too many penalties and they played a much better game than we did.”

Alexander Georgiev recorded his fifth career shutout on Saturday.

The Islanders never seemed to be able to establish their game as they had done on Thursday night against the same team.

“There were some tough bounces early and we didn’t find a way to respond, and fight our way out of it,” Josh Bailey said. “I think we were staying positive and knew that we just needed to get things going in the right direction. it just never really came together for us tonight. It’s tough you’re going to have those bounces go against you sometimes, but it doesn’t mean you have to lose the game.

“Try to respond on Monday with a much better effort.”

Semyon Varlamov Injured During Warmups; Ilya Sorokin Makes NHL Debut

Mika Zibanejad forced a turnover and was able to set up Pavel Buchnevich for the Rangers first goal of the night 2:12 into the game. The Islanders turnover occurred when Noah Dobson tried to play the puck near the bench in neutral ice.

The Rangers made it 2-0 when Brendan Smith blocked an Islanders shot and was able to spring Artemi Panarin for a breakaway goal at 13:46 of the first period. They added to their lead in the second period after Buchnevich scored his second of the game 5:57 into the middle frame.

Kaapo Kakko made it a 4-0 game with a one-timer from the side of the net that beat Sorokin. Panarin found the back of the net for the second time on Saturday with a power-play goal late in the third period.

“One of the worst managed games by our group in terms of our whole game,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said.