Scott Wedgewood’s 31 saves not enough as Coyotes fall to Islanders

NEW YORK (AP) — Ilya Sorokin stopped 17 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, Brock Nelson scored twice and the New York Islanders beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-0 Friday night.

Scott Mayfield had a goal and an assist, and Austin Czarnik also scored to help the Islanders get their third straight win and seventh in their last nine (7-1-1).

Sorokin got his sixth win in his last eight starts and has only allowed 15 goals over that stretch. The 26-year-old goaltender is 11-7-5 in his second NHL season.

“I don’t think we played a bad game after two periods, but it was really tough to create offense against them,” Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny said.

Scott Wedgewood finished with 31 saves but the Coyotes snapped a two-game winning streak in the second of a four-game trip. Arizona failed to score in both meetings against New York this season, losing 3-0 at home on Oct. 23.

Mayfield opened the scoring with 6:09 left in the first on a slap shot from the point in which Lee screened Wedgewood. Mathew Barzal got a loose puck off an offensive zone faceoff and danced around Nick Schmaltz before getting the puck back to Adam Pelech who eventually set up Mayfield.

The Islanders doubled their lead 2:58 later as Mayfield sent a cross-ice pass to Czarnik for an easy tap-in near the back post. Islanders captain Anders Lee also picked up an assist on the play.

New York improved to 12-4-4 when scoring the first goal and outshot the lifeless Coyotes, 35-17.

Nelson sealed the victory when he scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season in the third. First, he gathered a bouncing puck and fired a wrist shot past Wedgewood at 1:22.

Then, midway through the period, Nelson crashed the net and finished a pass from Anthony Beauvillier. The play was reviewed, but the original call of a good goal stood.

“I thought we had a good start to the first period, but then we kind of gave them their offense and they capitalized on it,” Coyotes D Dysin Mayo said.

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The Coyotes play the New York Rangers on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.