DENVER — A night that was all about the two goalies the Islanders have invested their hopes in ended in triumph for both.
A victory for Patrick Roy in his return to Denver.
A victory for Ilya Sorokin in his return to the crease.
And a much-needed victory for the Islanders, who avoided a third straight loss to open the season and will head to St. Louis at NHL .500 (1-1-1) after a 6-2 win over the Avalanche on Monday night at Ball Arena.
“Good night for the goalies,” Anders Lee told The Post. “Just for Ilya, not having a training camp and getting up to game speed, he was so solid. … They had some good looks at times, and he shut the door.”
Sorokin, for all the worry about his physical health and how the way last season ended might have affected him mentally, looked just fine from the first shot of the night — a Nathan MacKinnon wrister he turned aside easily.
Playing behind a defense that was quietly a bright spot through those first two games, Sorokin looked unfazed and was his usual unrelenting self, stopping 32 shots and turning in a highlight-reel save on John Ludvig’s second-period chance, splaying both legs to stop the puck with his left pad.
“Feel good,” Sorokin told The Post. “Try to control my emotion and play, [do] the simple things and just focus on one moment.”
More than anything else that’s happened through the first nine periods of this season, that is — by some margin — the most important when you zoom out and look at the big picture.
This was not, however, a night when the Islanders needed their goalie to bail them, at least until a Colorado onslaught in the third period, much of it with the game out of reach.
“In the third, I thought he was outstanding,” Roy said of his netminder. “The first two periods, I don’t think we gave them too much. He made some great saves here and there, but in the third, they were, like, really good chances.”
Aside from the first five minutes or so, during which Colorado built up a 6-1 shot advantage and scored the opener, the Islanders had the better of the home side, building a 5-2 lead.
All four lines appeared at ease with each other after the first two games were marked by fits and starts. The Islanders played sound 200-foot hockey, cycling the puck with ease on one end and keeping Colorado away from the middle of the ice on the other, making things easy for Sorokin.
Brock Nelson, who uncharacteristically had yet to score coming into the night, got on the scoresheet twice within three minutes during the second period, first by skating through Mikko Rantanen and Oliver Kylington before a silky move past goalie Alexandar Georgiev, then by mugging Cale Makar and finishing a one-on-zero chance for a shorthanded goal.
That made it 4-1 before the third period started, and unlike the opener against Utah, there was no meltdown incoming, though one did threaten with Casey Mittelstadt’s goal 39 seconds into the third, right after a Colorado power play expired.
Anthony Duclair, however, put an end to any worries by taking Alexander Romanov’s feed to the crease and finishing around Georgiev to make it 5-2.
Mat Barzal sealed it with an empty-netter, capping a superb response to what had been a less-than-ideal start.
After Calum Ritchie’s opening goal 61 seconds into the night, it took just 5:33 for Lee to tie it, poking in his own rebound at the right post. With under 90 seconds left in the first period, Kyle Palmieri gave New York the lead after Georgiev’s stick check on the rush ended up putting the puck right back onto Palmieri’s stick.
“No need to panic,” Lee said. “No need to worry about anything else other than getting to our game.”
It’s just one win — and the Islanders hope one of many.
But the first one is always a relief. This one, perhaps, more so than usual.
“Played so well in Dallas, coming here empty-handed, I was hoping we could have another strong game,” Roy said. “And that’s exactly what the guys did.”