Isles' Roy irked by near collapse: Sorokin 'deserved more respect'

The New York Islanders nearly coughed up a big lead late in Thursday's 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, and while head coach Patrick Roy conceded "a win is a win," he admitted he wouldn't have been very gracious if it was him between the pipes.

"I guess times have changed because in my days, if my team would have done that to me, I will break a stick in that room," the Hall of Fame netminder said. "I'd be very upset to see my team playing like this in front of me. (Goalie Ilya Sorokin) is a gentleman, he's a first-class person."

Roy added, "We didn't compete, we didn't battle in front of the net in the last eight minutes. That's unacceptable. We talked about it this morning to be stronger. Our goalie deserved more respect than this."

The Islanders jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third period after Noah Dobson, Bo Horvat, and Maxim Tsyplakov all found the back of the net over a 2:19 span.

However, the Blackhawks responded with three of their own in the last nine minutes. Chicago forward Tyler Bertuzzi scored with 1:10 remaining on the clock and found the back of the net again with 10 seconds left.

Sorokin turned aside all but one of the Blackhawks' 16 shots through the first two periods but came under fire in the third, with Chicago outshooting the Islanders 14-7 over the final 20 minutes.

The 2023 Vezina Trophy runner-up ended the night with an .867 save percentage after allowing four goals on 30 shots.

"We have one of the best (goalies) in the game," Roy emphasized. "He doesn't deserve that. I hope we feel bad about it. I really do. We gotta play the game for 60 minutes, and we have to play a certain way."

Despite the near collapse, the five-goal outburst was a promising sign for the Islanders, who entered Thursday's action ranked 29th in goals for per game (2.53).

"The rest, we did a lot of good things. ... We had a great start to the third, we found ways to put pucks (in) the net," Roy said.

The Islanders sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division with a 12-12-7 record and have won three of their last four games. Next up is another clash against the Blackhawks in Chicago on Sunday.