The New York Islanders achieved a shootout victory for the first time in over a year. After Freddy Gaudreau of the Seattle Kraken scored the opening goal against Islanders goalie David Rittich, Bo Horvat kept his team’s hopes alive by beating Joey Daccord with a quick wrister. Kyle Palmieri then secured the win in the next round, leading the Islanders to a 1-0 triumph at UBS Arena on Sunday night.
Head coach Patrick Roy praised Horvat’s performance, stating, “It was nice to see Bo score that one because no one wanted to go back in the dressing room with a loss, even in a shootout. Then [Palmieri] finished the deal right after that. There was a lot of pressure on Bo. But right now, he’s responding to every challenge and deserves a lot of credit for it.”
This marked only the third time the Islanders (13-8-2) won a shootout with a score of 1-0, breaking a five-game shootout losing streak since Nov. 5, 2024, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The victory alleviated some of the disappointment from scoring just one open-play goal in their last two games, following a 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues. This was their first home game after a 6-1-0 seven-game road trip.
Kyle Palmieri said, “It’s weird, back-to-back earlier starts, no pre-game skates. We just wanted to get off to a good start. I thought we had some energy off the back-to-back. We’re excited to be back home in front of our fans on a weekend.”
David Rittich’s reliable performance continued in place of Ilya Sorokin, stopping all 19 shots during regulation and overtime, plus three more in the shootout. Roy commended him, “David was outstanding out there. It was a great team effort on a back-to-back, tough schedule. We talked about it before the game. We didn’t want to lose two in a row. It was important to come with a solid performance like this one.”
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