New York Islanders (17-10-10) at Arizona Coyotes (19-15-2)
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The Arizona Coyotes will look to put their latest result behind them as they come up against the New York Islanders for the second and final time this regular season.
Arizona are fresh off of a 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday where there was bad blood boiling between the two squads all night long.
Combining for 63 penalty minutes and 48 hits, the Panthers pulled away as they were able to score twice in a 0:42 span in the third period.
Jason Zucker is suspended for the next three games and will miss tonight’s tilt due to boarding Nick Cousins from behind in the second period two nights ago.
Being a left wing down, Arizona pushes forward to tonight as they will try to avenge a 1-0 defeat to the Islanders back on Oct. 17.
New York center Mathew Barzal would bury the lone goal on Karel Vejmelka in the defeat after outshooting Arizona 33-14.
The Isles instill a heavily defensive brand of hockey that can break on the counterattack at any moment.
While they are still sitting third place in the Metropolitan Division, they have been inconsistent in certain areas this season.
Currently, the Islanders are on a two-game losing streak, 2-2-2 in their last six and have allowed 121 goals against, 10th highest in the NHL.
Additionally, they possess the fourth worst penalty kill in the league (72.8%) and give up the second most amount of shots per-game (35.5).
Keeping them in the hunt for a playoff spot, the backbone of the Islanders is their star goaltender Ilya Sorokin.
Sorokin leads the entire NHL in shots faced with 881 and saves made (801). In 25 games, he is sporting a 11-6-8 record with a .910 save percentage and 3.19 goals-against-average.
If the previous encounter is an indicator of what happens tonight, it will be a game decided by fine margins.
Key Stats
Goals
- Coyotes – LW Lawson Crouse: 16
- Islanders – C Brock Nelson: 17
Assists
- Coyotes – LW Matias Maccelli: 21
- Islanders – D Noah Dobson: 30
Points
- Coyotes – RW Clayton Keller: 31 (13 goals, 18 assists)
- Islanders – C Mathew Barzal: 37 (10 goals, 27 assists)
Injuries
Arizona Coyotes: C Barrett Hayton (upper body – IR), C Vladislav Kolyachonok (lower body – IR), C Travis Boyd (upper body – IR)
New York Islanders: D Robert Bortuzzo (lower body – IR), D Ryan Pullock (lower body – IR), D Adam Pelech (upper body – IR), G Semyon Varlamov (undisclosed – OUT)
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Alec Cipollini is a reporter of the Arizona Coyotes and Cardinals for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account @AlecCipollini
