SALT LAKE CITY — The Islanders flirted with disaster in their crease on Saturday, but Marcus Hogberg got them through it.
Hogberg, the organization’s third-string netminder — and backup since the start of December with Semyon Varlamov hurt — was called into action for just the second time after Ilya Sorokin fell ill and was unavailable for the match against Utah Hockey Club.
That left the Isles scrambling to call up Jakub Skarek from Bridgeport on an emergency basis to be the backup, and using Utah’s EBUG as a second goalie for their morning skate with him yet to arrive.
It could have ended as a hard-learned lesson about Sorokin’s importance to the club.
Instead, Hogberg saved 21 of 22 shots and took home his first NHL victory in nearly four years with the 2-1 Islanders win.
His last win had come on April 28, 2021, when he backstopped the Senators to a win over the Canucks.
“I was happy,” Hogberg said afterward. “It was a tight game, they were up 1-0. So I think we did a great push in the third period and it was really nice to get a W tonight.”
Coach Patrick Roy said before the win that the Islanders had informed Hogberg on Friday that he would be the likely starter.
Still, with the team desperately wanting to earn its first three-game winning streak of the season, it was far from an ideal situation.
Sorokin has started nearly every game since Varlamov’s injury, with the lone exception coming on the second end of a back-to-back on Dec. 28.
Hogberg looked good then, and he looked good Saturday — with some major help from the defense coming in the second period when Adam Pelech blocked Clayton Keller’s shot into an otherwise open net before Hogberg covered the puck during the ensuing scramble.
“I think he’s very simple,” Roy said. “He’s fighting, he’s in the middle of the net, he covers his angles very well and moves well. But the fact that he’s square, good position, he’s a big man, so I think he makes it tough for the other team to come score on him.”
Alexander Romanov was a late scratch against Utah with an upper-body injury and the team declared him day-to-day.
Romanov left the ice early during morning skate and appeared to be grimacing before going up the tunnel.
Roy declined to answer whether he was also ill or dealing with an injury.
Since Skarek was an emergency recall, the Islanders were allowed to keep Grant Hutton on the roster as their seventh defenseman.
Hutton, however, did not skate Saturday morning, as clarity on the roster size did not come until it was too late.
