Game Recap: Wild 5, Islanders 0

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Marc-Andre Fleury earned sole possession of second place on the NHL all-time wins list with 21 saves and his first shutout of the season for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-0 win against the New York Islanders on Monday.

Fleury tied Patrick Roy (551) with a 4-3 win at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 6. Martin Brodeur has the most wins in NHL history with 691. He has also played the most games by a goalie (1,266); Fleury has played 1007.

“Finally, right? It’s been a little rough lately,” Fleury said. “I wish we could have done this a little while ago, right? But I think everybody knows, everyone in this room, that we try to work our best and try to win games, climb our way back, right, and tonight that was a great game against a good team and we got that one.”

Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice, and Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno each had a goal and an assist for Minnesota (18-20-5), which had lost four in a row.

“I thought it was a really good, solid game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I think we cleaned up a lot of areas that we felt in the last four-game stretch were major issues, and tonight the players did a great job of executing and playing the game the right way.”

Ilya Sorokin stopped 29 of 32 shots before he was replaced by Kenneth Appleby, who made six saves in his first appearance of the season for New York (19-14-10), which has lost two in a row and is 2-5-1 in its past eight.

“I just didn’t like our effort at all,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “I didn’t think we were 100 percent committed to playing the game the right way right from the start and it just kind of snowballed as we went along.”

Zuccarello gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead on the power play at 2:11 of the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

“Well, I score once every 20 games, so it's nice to get one now and then,” Zuccarello said. “I think we played a solid team game. Everyone contributed, whether it was a block shot, a goal, PK, ‘Flower’, everything. That’s the team game we have to play, and hopefully we can build on that and get on a run here. We have a tough stretch coming up.”

Connor Dewar made it 2-0 at 2:18 of the second period, winning the puck from Islanders forward Simon Holmstrom in the offensive zone and beating Sorokin with a wrist shot from the slot.

Eriksson Ek scored his team-leading 16th goal of the season with a tip in on the power play at 13:36 to make it 3-0.

Minnesota outshot the Islanders 20-3 in the second period.

“We didn’t do anything very well tonight,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “They were on top of us quite a bit and we couldn’t get to our game. I think our effort needs to be elevated and we need to have a better showing. We got to get (mad). I mean, there’s a lot of little things that add up to a poorly played hockey game.”

Appleby started the third period, making his first appearance since Jan.25, 2018, for the New Jersey Devils in a 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators.

“Sorokin had seen enough rubber,” Lambert said. “I thought he came [in] and did as good a job as he could do.”

Eriksson Ek extended the lead to 4-0 with a short-handed goal at 16:09 of the third. Foligno won the puck at center ice from Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson and fed Eriksson Ek, who beat Appleby with a wrist shot from the right circle on a 2-on-1 rush.

Foligno scored at 19:03 for the 5-0 final. Jonas Brodin’s pass from the left point found Frederick Gaudreau at the bottom of the right circle, and Gaudreau fed Foligno at the left post for a tap in.

“That was us,” Foligno said. “I think we honestly just snapped out of it a little bit. Jonas Brodin, we all realize what he does. He breaks out the puck a lot. He’s back there so quickly, so we got him back there. It makes guys settle. Guys were making better plays. That’s what we need. We needed a little more plays from guys, and we got it. It was special that we played the way we did.”

NOTES: The Wild won its sixth straight game against the Islanders dating back to Nov. 7, 2021. … Brodin had an assist, three shots and was plus-two in 20:06 of ice time in his first game after missing the past 17 with an upper-body injury. … Wild defenseman Brock Faber recorded his 19th assist of the season and passed Connor Bedard (18) for sole possession of first place among NHL rookies. … Appleby’s last NHL appearance was 2181 days ago, the seventh-longest span between appearances for a goaltender in the NHL’s expansion era (1967-68).