We’re back with another fan-voted goal breakdown. This week, a beautiful Ryan Pulock game-winning goal won the most votes on our Instagram. Thank you for voting and be on the lookout for another one this weekend.

Pulock entered the game against the Rangers on April 11 with the most shots amongst players who had not scored a goal this season with 90 and those are just the ones that hit the net. He changed that at the biggest time.

Pulock took a pass from Mathew Barzal, skated a few strides in and ripped the puck past Igor Shesterkin in overtime. The play stemmed from an offensive zone face-off and a board battle. Let’s break it down.

Despite losing the faceoff, the Islanders get on the puck quickly. Barzal forces K’Andre Miller to make a quick pass up the boards that isn’t handled completely clean by Filip Chytil. Trade-acquisition and new top-line forward Travis Zajac engages Chytil on the boards and prevents a breakout pass to Ryan Strome. Barzal beats Miller to the battle and the loose puck. This gives Barzal time and space with the puck, where he is dangerous.

As Strome exited the zone to look for the pass, Pulock went with him. As Barzal grabbed the puck, both Strome and Pulock returned the Rangers’ zone but Strome watched the puck, allowing Pulock to sneak behind him on the weak side, which is the side of the ice away from the puck.

Barzal sent a cross-ice pass between Strome and Miller, who was returning to the play from the corner, which Pulock skated into. Strome was stuck in the middle of the ice not covering anyone while Miller couldn’t get to Pulock fast enough. The Islanders’ defenseman took a perfect shot to beat Shesterkin.

However, the shot didn’t hit the top corner or go bar down, so how was it perfect? Pulock took advantage of the holes a goalie leaves in the butterfly position. While many players love to shoot for the top corner, Pulock’s shot went just over Shesterkin’s pad and below his blocker.

This is one of the hardest spots for a goalie to stop because many of them go down and move their blocker in two motions. That extra second allows pucks to slip through. Shesterkin also looked like he wanted to play the puck to the corner. This reflex further extended his arm, opening up the spot that Pulock hit.

The goal gave the Islanders two points in the standings and a win over their rivals and gave Ilya Sorokin a win in his first game against his longtime friend and rival in Shesterkin. With Zajac contributing and Pulock off the schneid, the Islanders are primed for a big run in the last month of the season.

John Smark