– The Isles penalty kill went 2-for-2 and got big kills when the team needed it, with Sorokin factoring in and coming up with big saves. He stopped Anthony Cirelli’s furious attempts at the right side of the crease en route to the Islanders’ second straight kill in the game.
“The PK was huge in the second period,” Roy said. “Cirelli had two grade-A [chances] around the net, but Ilya was so good tonight. He was moving really well. Sometimes you need your goalie to make big saves and that’s exactly what we got from him. Other than this, we blocked shots, cleared the puck and did a lot of good things.
– Adam Boqvist drew in for Travis Mitchell. Roy pointed out Boqvist’s strong performances in Tampa last season – he scored the opening goal in a 3-2 OT winner on Feb. 1 and tallied an assist on the road against the Lighting
– Andrei Vasilevskiy missed the contest and the Lightning were also without the firepower of Nikita Kucherov (day to day) or Brayden Point, who missed his seventh straight game. They did see the return of Victor Hedman, who recorded two shot attempts in 16:43 TOI in his first game back after missing 12 games.