"It's an incredible feeling": Varlamov won his first NHL win since 2024

Our goalkeeper played two games at the end of last season for the farm club “islanders” “Bridgeport” in the American hockey League. He won both games, conceding only three goals (the percentage of shots reflected is 0.939). “It's an incredible feeling. A very special moment. Honestly, a year ago I didn't expect that. The last two years have been very stressful to get to this point where you have the opportunity to play and compete at the highest level in the world.

I am very grateful for this opportunity and want to thank everyone involved in my rehabilitation, surgery and everything else. I'm very, very proud of everyone, the Russian goalkeeper told the NHL website.

“I am just very happy for Varlamov. It took him a long time. Semyon has played well up to this point and to finally see him win by making important saves and bailing out the team is certainly a great pleasure for us and a triple pleasure for him, Islanders captain Bo Horvath said.

Ducleux led the Islanders forward in the first half of the first period, when the teams played in a 4-on-4 format, after he tweaked a pass from Jean-Gabriel Pageau to the center of the court. Shann increased the guest advantage to 2-0 in the 9th minute. Ducle gave the pass to the zone in front of the goal, the puck bounced from the stick of Predators defender Nicholas Hague to Ondrey Chamber, who gave the pass to Shenn, and he threw the puck with the back of the stick.

The Croatian increased the advantage to 3-0 at the very beginning of the second period, immediately sending the puck into goal after passing Matthew Schaefer across the court from the right side of the throw. However, soon the "predators" played back one puck, when Forsberg, without looking, threw the puck into the near corner after a pass by Jonathan Marchesso, realizing a numerical advantage. Alex Kerfoot cut Nashville's gap to 2-3 midway through the second period by pushing the puck, which rolled behind Varlamov's back after Niels Hoglander's throw.

O'Reilly evened the score in the fifth minute of the third twenty-minute, tweaking the puck after bouncing off a Damon Hunt throw that our goalkeeper failed to recapture. Varlamov repelled Nashville's last five shots in regular time and prevented O'Reilly and Forsberg from scoring in the Bullitt Series. “He was incredibly helpful when needed. Semyon is improving his game. After so many missed matches, every night when we put him on the court, he got a little better and felt more confident. He was our best player today, Islanders coach Peter DeBoer said.

Varlamov won his 77th victory with the New York Islanders and equaled Roland Melanson in the number of victories in the history of this club, now occupying the eighth place.