Ivar Stenberg scored the lone goal in an eight-round shootout to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday at SAP Center at San Jose.
The Islanders took the initial lead 6:14 into the first period when Ben Hutton scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot set up by Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat. San Jose tied the score later in the period at 16:41 as Stenberg deflected in a tip-in goal with assists from Tyler Toffoli and Ty Dellandrea.
New York regained the edge early in the second period on the power play, where Victor Eklund connected on a slap shot at 1:11 off passes from Brayden Schenn and Matthew Schaefer. San Jose countered at 12:12 when Toffoli sent a slap shot past Ilya Sorokin, assisted by Dmitry Orlov and Eric Pohlkamp, evening the game at 2-2 through regulation and overtime.
Goaltenders commanded the tiebreaker after 65 minutes of play. Yaroslav Askarov turned away 30 of 32 shots in regulation and overtime, then denied all eight New York shooters in the shootout to earn the win. Sorokin stopped 37 of 39 shots for New York before Stenberg solved him in the eighth round. The Islanders finished 1 for 4 on the power play, while the Sharks came up empty on four power-play chances.
The victory improved San Jose to an 8-11-1 record on the season. New York dropped to 7-6-4 and remains winless in four consecutive games (0-2-2).
Both clubs continue their schedules later in the week. The Sharks host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, while the Islanders visit the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.
