SAINT PAUL, Minn. — It didn’t come the way the Islanders would have wanted, but Ilya Sorokin finally got a rest.
That came as a result of a mercy pull by coach Lane Lambert for the final 20 minutes of what became a 5-0 loss to the Wild on Monday night.
Sorokin, who stopped 29 of 32 shots, will have to play on those 20 minutes of rest if — as expected — he is asked to start in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
“He had seen enough rubber,” Lambert said of Sorokin, who appeared in his 11th straight game.
Ken Appleby saw his first NHL action since Jan. 25, 2018 in relief, turning aside six of eight shots.
“It was exciting,” Appleby said. “I guess anytime you get into the NHL, it’s exciting. Obviously, I would’ve liked to have gotten in there and made the saves they needed to give the guys a chance to come back. But that wasn’t the case tonight. Just hope to be ready again whenever they need me again.”
Since this is the last back-to-back the Islanders have until mid-March, they will hope that Semyon Varlamov (lower body) is back in the fold some time before there is such a need.
Sorokin, who has started both games of a back-to-back three times previously, appears set to do so again against the Jets in a match the Islanders now very much need to win in order to wash out the taste of an embarrassing effort on Monday.
Breaking up Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat turned out to be a short-lived experiment.
The dynamic duo was back together on the top line on Monday night as Lambert reverted to something resembling the team’s normal configuration on the heels of a gut-punch 3-1 loss in Nashville on Saturday night.
Without Casey Cizikas (lower body) the Islanders had to settle for a facsimile of their usual lines, but the top-six was back to normal, with Horvat centering Barzal and Lee while Brock Nelson was in between Pierre Engvall and Kyle Palmieri.
Julien Gauthier drew back in on the third line, which was again centered by Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
And without Cizikas to play on the fourth line, the Islanders went with Hudson Fasching at center with Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck on either side.
The defense pairs were also juggled, with Sebastian Aho playing to Adam Pelech’s right while Scott Mayfield was dropped to the third pair with Mike Reilly.
Wild netminder Marc-Andre Fleury won his 552nd career game, passing Patrick Roy for the second-most all time behind Martin Brodeur.
The Islanders are now winless in their last six games against the Wild.
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