Islanders face Maple Leafs yearning for more good news
The second day of 2026 went much better than the first for the New York Islanders.
The Islanders hope their second game of the calendar year goes better than the first on Saturday night, when New York faces the Toronto Maple Leafs in a battle of Eastern Conference rivals in Elmont, N.Y.
Both teams were off Friday after playing at home on New Year's Day, when the Islanders were routed by the Utah Mammoth 7-2 and the Maple Leafs overcame a three-goal deficit to edge the Winnipeg Jets, 6-5.
The defeat was the most lopsided of the season for the Islanders, who dodged an even bigger loss when leading scorer Bo Horvat hobbled off the ice with a lower-body injury after getting tangled up with Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi shortly before the midway point of the third period.
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said Horvat, who missed five games in December with a left ankle injury, will be evaluated again next week. Multiple outlets reported Horvat, who was named to Team Canada on Wednesday, is still likely to play in the Olympics next month.
The Islanders also got good news at practice when primary goaltender Ilya Sorokin, who hasn't played since Dec. 19 due to an unspecified injury, returned to the ice. Roy said David Rittich, who has started the last six games, will be in net Saturday but that Sorokin is lined up to start against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
Rittich helped bail out a struggling offense -- the Islanders have scored two non-shootout goals or fewer in nine straight games -- by allowing three goals or fewer in each of his first five starts in place of Sorokin. But the Mammoth chased him Thursday by scoring five goals in a stretch of less than 26 minutes spanning the second and third periods.
"There's going to be nights like this," said Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who scored New York's second goal. "Obviously we've got to put the puck in the net a little bit more and just be better in all areas."
Putting the puck in the net plenty helped the Maple Leafs continue building some much-needed momentum Thursday as they try to climb back into the Eastern Conference playoff race.
The Jets, who have the fewest points in the NHL, raced out to a 4-1 lead fewer than six minutes into the second period before the Maple Leafs tied the score with three straight goals in a 16-minute span bridging the final two periods.
Winnipeg's Mark Scheifele scored a power-play goal at 8:50 of the third, but Troy Stecher tied the score again with 6:47 remaining before Auston Matthews capped his hat trick by burying a backhand shot after Jets goalie Eric Comrie whiffed trying to fire the puck off the boards.
The win was the fourth in five games (4-0-1) for the Maple Leafs, who woke up Friday morning two points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Toronto was in last place in the East through Dec. 22, the day before its current run began.
"That was great -- always fun to win, but (especially) a game that's really back and forth," said Matthews, who recorded his 14th career hat trick. "We kept pushing shift-by-shift and clawed our way back into the game. That's a big one."