Ilya Sorokin’s playoff experience could be X-factor for Islanders

NHL

By Ethan Sears

April 15, 2023 | 9:25pm

There is an instinct to cast Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin as a relatively new commodity to playoff hockey.

The last time the Islanders were in the tournament, two seasons ago, Sorokin played some, including during all four wins against the Penguins, but Semyon Varlamov was still atop the Islanders’ depth chart. 

Two years has been long enough for Sorokin to become perhaps the best goalie in the NHL and undoubtedly the most pivotal player on the Islanders’ roster.

He started 60 games this season and had a .924 save percentage.

Sorokin, though, threw cold water on the idea the playoffs are something different for him, and rightly so.

“It’s not my first time in NHL [playoffs]. I have seven playoff [runs] in the KHL,” he told The Post following the Islanders’ practice Saturday ahead of their first-round series against the Hurricanes. “It’s a little different hockey. And, a nice time.”

If Sorokin’s playoff numbers from two years ago — a .922 save percentage with a rough Game 5 of the conference finals the black dot on an otherwise strong résumé — did not leave enough of an impression, then just look at what he did overseas.

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CSKA Moscow made it to the Gagarin Cup finals (the KHL’s Stanley Cup equivalent) three times with Sorokin in net, and won the championship in 2019. His save percentage during those runs: .945, .930 and .947.

Over 20 playoff games in 2019, Sorokin went 16-4 with 1.19 goals allowed average and five shutouts. He was named the KHL playoff MVP after CSKA swept Avangard in four games in the finals.

Yes, that was four years ago, and yes, the NHL is a different animal. Those numbers, however, are unabashedly ridiculous. And there is no reason to believe Sorokin cannot raise his game now.

“It’s my 10th season in a professional league,” Sorokin said. “Not my second season, not my first season. So every year, you have a problem. You work with this problem and try to be better.”

Exactly what the problem has been this season is a slight mystery. Sorokin has placed himself in Vezina Trophy contention and rarely showed signs of struggle.

The Hurricanes, who beat Sorokin and the Islanders in three of four tries over the regular season, will pose a significant  challenge beginning Monday. For the Islanders, though, the one undisputed advantage in this series lies in net, where Carolina’s Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta had save percentages of .903 and .910 this season, respectively.

“Obviously I think that we think the world of our goaltenders,” Cal Clutterbuck said. “I’m not gonna speak comparatively because I see Raanta and Freddy Andersen maybe once or twice a…