Ivar Stenberg finally ended the longest shootout of the season when he beat Ilya Sorokin, giving the Sharks a 3-2 win over the Islanders after a Monday night that went from pond hockey to pure chaos. These teams might not be top of the league, but man, they can put on a show when things get wild. And wild they got, fast.
Gloves Off, Cheeks Cut: Things Escalated Quickly
Before we even got to the shootout marathon, this game was an absolute powder keg. The teams were trading power play goals, but it felt like something was brewing from the jump. You had a terrible call against Kyle MacLean where Macklin Celebrini just took a dive in the neutral zone, handing the Sharks a power play goal. That kind of stuff always boils over. Sure enough, by the end of the second period, with the game knotted at 2-2, the gloves were off. Shoves and threats flew before Ty Dellandrea went at it with MacLean, cutting MacLean’s cheek open. Then Mitchell Chaffee and Barclay Goodrow dropped ’em, with Chaffee coming out on top.
That set the stage for a third period that exploded. Victor Eklund, who was having a great game with a sweet power play one-timer, threw a check into Kiefer Sherwood’s body and fell on him. The irony here is Sherwood, who apparently wears extra gloves and can’t legally fight, had tried to pick a fight with Eklund, a teenager, at the end of the second. So when Marchment, showing off some next-level hockey “intelligence,” started throwing ungloved punches at Eklund while the kid was tied up with a linesman, it was pure mayhem. The refs reviewed Eklund’s hit on Sherwood, decided no penalty was needed for Eklund, but Marchment got hit with a double-minor. What a mess!
Isles Survive a Penalty Avalanche Only to Fall in a Shootout
After Marchment’s boneheaded move, the Islanders’ power play came back out, and boy, was it a rollercoaster. The second unit, known for its “normal level of incompetence,” managed to take two penalties on the same play! First, Ondrej Palat with a lazy hook after a turnover. Then Anthony Duclair tripped a Shark after the play should’ve been whistled dead when he knocked away a pass in the slot. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! Somehow, with Ilya Sorokin making clutch saves and J-G Pageau, Bo Horvat, and Adam Pelech putting in “great work,” the Islanders killed off the ensuing two-minute 4-on-3. Unbelievable stuff.
The game stayed deadlocked at 2-2 with under ten minutes left, heading into overtime. Sorokin kept making big saves in OT, and Horvat had a wide-open backhand chance that he sent just wide. Nothing could prevent the inevitable: a shootout. And what a shootout it was. The first *15* attempts were stopped. Fifteen! It was wild to see Matthew Schaefer’s first career shootout attempt in that kind of pressure cooker. But it all came down to Ivar Stenberg, who finally broke the deadlock, beating Sorokin to seal the 3-2 win for the Sharks. Yaroslav Askarov was absolutely lights out, stopping all eight Islanders attempts. What a way to end a truly bonkers game.
These two teams might be works in progress, but they definitely delivered entertainment. Next time out, who knows what kind of chaos these guys will cook up, but you know we’ll be watching!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Lighthouse Hockey.
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