Visits: 9
Robin Lehner stopped 35 shots for his ninth career shutout in his Islanders debut, leading the team to a 4-0 victory on Monday over the visiting San Jose Sharks.
Anders Lee, Scott Mayfield, Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas scored to help the Islanders get their new coach, Barry Trotz, his first win at home. The Islanders, who opened the season with an overtime win at Carolina on Thursday, lost their home opener to Nashville two nights later.
Lehner, who signed with the Islanders in July, played for the first time since March 29, when he was with Buffalo. He left that game against Detroit because of a panic attack and was subsequently treated for alcohol and drug addiction. He was also found to have bipolar disorder, A.D.H.D. and PTSD.
“It was a really good game, a fun game to play,” Lehner said after Monday’s win. “I was a little bit nervous at the beginning, to be honest. Then we got a couple of easy ones right from the start to kind of get us settled down a little bit.”
Lehner denied Tomas Hertl on the doorstep with 1 minute 40 seconds left to preserve the shutout and get his first win against the Sharks after coming in 0-4 with a 3.33 goals-against average in four games against them.
Cizikas added a short-handed empty-netter with 56 seconds left to cap the scoring.
Martin Jones finished with 26 saves for San Jose, which has lost two of its first three games.
The Islanders got on the scoreboard late in a second period in which they outshot the Sharks, 12-8. San Jose came up empty on two power plays before the Islanders broke through on their man advantage as Lee knocked in the rebound of Josh Bailey’s shot from the right circle for his second at 14:34. It gave Lee a power-play goal for the second straight game.
Mayfield, making his season debut after being a healthy scratch the first two games, made the score 2-0 at 5:16 of the third as he deflected a wrist shot by Cizikas.
Martin, back in New York this season after spending two years in Toronto, got his first goal since last December with just under seven minutes left.
Both goalies were tested in the scoreless first period. With the Islanders on an early power play, Jones gloved Bailey’s one-timer from the right circle, and made a stick save on Lee’s tip and a pad save on Nick Leddy’s hard shot.
Lehner had two nice stops on San Jose’s power play, denying Joe Pavelski’s tip try and making a glove save on Logan Couture.
The Islanders had another man advantage late in the first, but Jones gloved Mathew Barzal’s hard shot from the left circle and then made a stick save on his try from the same area.
Tom Kuhnhackl, making his Islanders debut, hit a post with about three minutes left in the first.