SALT LAKE CITY — The Islanders had a disaster in the crease on Saturday, but Marcus Hogberg got through it.
Hogberg, the organization's third-string netminder, had been on reserve since early December when Semyon Varlamov was injured, but he was called back for just the second time after Ilya Sorokin became ill and missed the game against the Utah Hockey Club. It was called.
So the Isles scrambled to call up Bridgeport's Jakub Skalek as backup and use Utah's EBUG as their second goaltender for the morning skate, which had 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 in a 2-1 win over the Islanders and his first NHL win in nearly four years.
His last win came on April 28, 2021, when he backstopped the Senators in a win over the Canucks.
“I was happy,” Hogberg said afterward. “It was a tight game, they were leading 1-0, so I thought we made a great push in the third period and it was really nice to get the W tonight.”
Coach Patrick Roy said before the win that the Islanders informed Hogberg on Friday that he could be considered to be the starter.
Still, the situation was far from ideal for the team, which was aiming for its first three consecutive wins of the season.
Sorokin has started nearly every game since Varlamov's injury, the only exception being the second end of back-to-back games on Dec. 28.
Hogberg looked good then, and he looked good Saturday as well. There was great help from the defense in the second period, when Adam Pelech blocked Clayton Keller's shot into the open net, and on the ensuing scramble Hogberg covered the puck.
“I think he's a very simple guy,” Roy said. “He's fighting, he's in the middle of the net, he covers angles well, he moves well. But the fact that he's square, in good position, and a big man makes it difficult for opposing teams to I think it makes it difficult to score points.”
Alexander Romanov suffered an upper-body injury late in the game against Utah, and the team announced he was listed as day-to-day.
Romanoff left the ice early during the morning skate and appeared to wince before climbing the tunnel.
Roy declined to say whether he was sick or injured.
With Skarek on emergency recall, the Islanders were allowed to keep Grant Hutton on the roster as a seventh defenseman.
However, Hutton did not skate Saturday morning. That's because the size of the roster wasn't made clear until it was too late.
