Georgiev, Rangers shut out Islanders, spoil Sorokin's NHL debut

NEW YORK --Alexandar Georgiev had a 23-save shutout, and the New York Rangers spoiled the NHL debut of New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin with a 5-0 win at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin scored two goals each for the Rangers, who lost the season opener 4-0 to the Islanders here Thursday.
"I was 100 percent sure we weren't going to be as bad as we were the other night, that's for sure," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "I have to give a bunch of our leaders a ton of credit. Jacob Trouba stood tall tonight, played one of his best games as a Ranger, but the stuff he did in between the last game and tonight went a long way in putting us in the right mindset. Mika [Zibanejad], [Chris] Kreider, [Panarin], all these guys.
"Nobody was happy with what happened the other night. It was an embarrassing performance, but it's all about how you respond to that. I'm hoping everybody is off the George Washington Bridge by now and everything is righted after tonight."

Sorokin made 27 saves in a surprise appearance after would-be starter Semyon Varlamov was injured during warmups when Cal Clutterbuck's shot hit him under the mask and above the left shoulder in the collarbone area.
Islanders coach Barry Trotz did not have an update on Varlamov's condition after the game. Sorokin was backed up by Cory Schneider, the third goalie on the Islanders roster.
"With Ilya, we hung him out to dry," Trotz said. "I don't think we played that well. Obviously, we put him in a real tough circumstance. We did it to ourselves injuring 'Varly' in the warmup. To me, it's almost unacceptable. To me, it's like running your quarterback over in warmup. Players got to recognize that your goaltender is almost your most important player on your team. You've got to get him warmed up. Guys are not thinking.
"It wasn't fair to Ilya, it wasn't fair to Varly, the way the guys warmed him up. It started in warmup and it just sort of carried over through the whole game."
Georgiev won his first start of the season, getting his fifth NHL shutout and second against the Islanders. He is 6-2-0 against them.
"A lot of work has been put in the last 10 months, a lot of gym, a lot of mentally staying sharp," Georgiev said. "I felt in [training] camp my game was good. [I] came confident into the game and brought the same game as in the camp to this game."

Buchnevich scored the Rangers' first goal of the season at 2:12 of the first period, giving them a 1-0 lead with a far side wrist shot from the left circle off a pass from Mika Zibanejad.
"It's especially important against this team to score early because if you don't score early and you let them score, then they tighten the defense and it's very difficult to penetrate," Buchnevich said. "We understood that part and we were fortunate to get the goal and get them to open up, and the rest came."
Panarin scored on a breakaway set up by a stretch pass from Brendan Smith at 13:46 of the first to make it 2-0. Buchnevich scored again at 5:57 of the second period, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead with another far side wrist shot from the left circle.
"I think that's just a really bad outing," Islanders captain Anders Lee said. "It's not representative of how we want to play."

Kaapo Kakko scored off the rush with a one-timer from the right circle to make it 4-0 at 15:24 of the second period.
Panarin scored a power-play goal at 15:56 of the third for the 5-0 final.
"The first four goals are all stuff that we did," Trotz said. "Turnovers, bad plays, poor execution. We were junk today."
NOTES:The Rangers were 1-for-8 on the power play; the Islanders were 0-for-4. … Smith replaced defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who was a healthy scratch. … Rangers rookies
Alexis Lafreniere
(plus-2) and K'Andre Miller (plus-3) each played his second NHL game and combined for a plus-5 rating.