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Islanders need OT to win first consecutive since mid November December 22, 2007: UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Richard Park has been called the New York Islanders' most consistent forward all season by coach Ted Nolan. He lived up to the billing Saturday night. Park's goal 3:43 into overtime helped the Islanders to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals. "He's a guy you want out on faceoffs," Nolan said. "He kills penalties, he works power plays. For a guy like Richard, that's a big, big deal." Park took Radek Martinek's pass in the lower left circle and beat Olaf Kolzig with a wrist shot for his sixth goal of the season, giving the Islanders consecutive wins for the first time since Nov. 16-19. "I saw Marty open, and he made a great play to get it right back to me," Park said. "I looked and saw no one near me, so I took a shot, and luckily, I found a hole." No one was near Park because defenseman Mike Green was clipped by a stick and went down, leaving Park wide open. "It was (teammate Jeff) Schultz's stick" Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Green was clipped in the ear, and he went down in the spot he'd normally be in. That's why Park was wide open." Green took two stitches to repair the cut. "Green's a tough kid," Boudreau said. "For him to go down like that, he really must have been hurt." Miroslav Satan and Bill Guerin also scored for the Islanders, and Rick DiPietro stopped 14 shots in his 106th NHL victory. That moved him into a third-place tie with Kelly Hrudey on New York's career list. Alexander Semin and Alexander Ovechkin scored for the Capitals, 1-2-2 in their last five. Kolzig made 28 saves. "Guys like that are going to get big goals," Guerin said. "For us to bounce back and win in overtime is a big testament for our hockey club right now." Guerin put New York up 2-1 with 2:06 left in regulation when he banged in the rebound of Chris Campoli's point shot. Ovechkin tied it with 54.8 seconds to go on a turnaround wrist shot from the left circle that caught DiPietro off guard. It was Ovechkin's 25th goal this season. "It could have been deflating when they got their second goal," Boudreau said. "But we never quit, and Ovie came through, even though he was bottled up all night, and only wound up with two shots on net." DiPietro made a dazzling stop on Semin to keep the first period scoreless. He sprawled out and got his glove on Semin's slap shot, then made a dive back to snare the puck as it trickled out of his glove and headed toward the goal line at 11:36. New York was held without a goal for the 23rd time in 34 first periods. The Islanders' 13 goals in that frame are the fewest in the NHL. The Islanders broke through on Kolzig at 10:03 of the second when Josef Vasicek sent Satan on a rush. Satan used his speed to keep the Washington defense away, and moved to his left, which drew Kolzig out of the net. Satan then found the open gap between the post and Kolzig for his 10th goal. Satan has a point in six straight games (three goals, three assists). Semin tied it with 2:08 left in the period when he found the puck 10 feet away from the net during a scramble and fired a wrist shot past DiPietro. It was the first of his five goals this season not scored in the third period. The Islanders are tied with Florida for the NHL lead in one-goal games this season with 21. New York is 13-6-2 in those contests. "We knew going in that we weren't going to blow anybody out 6-1 or 5-3," Nolan said. "We know that with our goaltending, we'll be in many games." Capitals forward Matt Pettinger couldn't explain his team's lack of scoring. "For some reason, we just didn't generate a whole lot of offense, judging by the shot total," Pettinger said of Washington's 16 shots. "If you look at the positive, we got a point out of it. We could have gotten nothing. We had the same problem the last time we were here, but we won. We were just trying to hang on until the shootout, and take our chances there." Notes: In eight back-to-back scenarios this
season, the Islanders are 6-2 in the second game. ... Washington has
more wins in fewer games under coach Bruce Boudreau (seven in 15
games) than they had when the fired Glen Hanlon was behind the
bench (six wins in 21). ... The Capitals won their other visit to Long
Island, 2-1 on Oct. 10, when they had only 12 shots. ... Nolan's son
Brandon, a Carolina Hurricanes forward, had an assist in his NHL debut
Saturday night. The Hurricanes said Nolan is the 15th son in league
history to play a game in the same season his father served as a head
coach.
Comeau scored his first career goal to give the Islanders
the lead midway through the third period, Trent Hunter added a goal 37
seconds later and New York shook off a recent slump to beat the
Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Friday night.
Comeau, a rookie playing only his second game this season and the fifth of his career, took fourth-line center Andy Hilbert's pass in the left circle and beat Dany Sabourin inside the far post to put the Islanders back into the lead at 3-2. "Andy did a great job of getting me the puck," Comeau said. "When I looked to the net, I heard guys yelling 'Shoot.' There were bodies there and the lane was open. So I put my head down and tried to put it on net as hard as I could and it ended up going in." The 21-year-old Comeau also had his first two-point game, assisting on Hilbert's tying goal about 8½ minutes into the second period after Jordan Staal had given Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Comeau was recalled Monday, shortly before Islanders forward Chris Simon was suspended for the eighth time -- for 30 games, the longest suspension in NHL history -- after tripping Penguins forward Jarkko Ruutu and stomping on his leg with his skate blade last Saturday. "You have to reward people who deserve it, and Andy Hilbert's line maybe wasn't getting as much ice time and, all of a sudden, he had a big one and it leads to another," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "Tonight, they deserved it." Hunter's seventh goal assured Pittsburgh's fourth loss in six games, a night after the Penguins couldn't hold a 4-0 lead but came back to beat Boston 5-4 in a shootout. Rick DiPietro made 24 saves as the Islanders won for only the third time in 11 games, going 2-7-1 in the previous 10. "Obviously, no one likes to be put on the fourth line, but with the fourth line we have it's really not a fourth line," said Hilbert, who played for Pittsburgh two seasons ago. "I think our whole team played well. It was a huge win and all four lines played a part." No line did much for the Penguins, who are 4-3 when playing on the second night of consecutive games. They seemed to have gained the momentum when a long-slumping Staal scored only his third goal in 35 games, on a power play early in the second. Sidney Crosby was knocked off his skates after carrying the puck down the slot, but it deflected to Staal along the goal line and he stuffed it inside the near post. That was Pittsburgh's only goal in six power-play chances, including a four-minute power play in the second. They are 2-for-25 with the man advantage in the last five games. "We have the skill to make some plays and make some passes (on the power play), but we have to move the puck better. We have to be better," Crosby said. "It's easy to talk about, correct this and correct that, but we've got to find a way." Sabourin stopped only 20 of 24 shots in losing his fourth in five starts, giving up goals to a player who hadn't previously scored (Comeau) and another who had scored only two other goals (Hilbert). Miroslav Satan also scored only 44 seconds into the game. "We expect him to be better," said coach Michel Therrien, who may go with backup Ty Conklin against Boston on Sunday. Notes: Penguins forward Gary Roberts'
assist on Erik Christensen's goal in the first period was his
900th career point. ... Satan has scored in five consecutive games.
Three of his nine goals are against Pittsburgh. ... The first three
games between the teams ended with 3-2 scores, with the Penguins winning
twice. ... Both teams failed to score on four-minute power plays, the
Islanders also doing so after Penguins rookie Tyler Kennedy's
double minor in the third. ... Crosby has 35 points in 19 games against
the Islanders, but was limited to the lone assist.
They played with energy, focus, drive, and made it a very
busy night for Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller. They just couldn't score
enough, which isn't Simon's job anyway.
Maxim Afinogenov scored with 2:17 left in the third period, just as Buffalo's sixth power play ended, and Miller made 42 saves to lift the Sabres to a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday. New York even out-hit the Sabres 25-10, despite the loss of Simon, who earlier in the day was handed an NHL-record, 30-game suspension. The Islanders' lone goal was scored by their resident hardest-hitter Brendan Witt, who tied the game in the third period with his first goal in nearly a year. "We did everything but score," Islanders captain Bill Guerin said. "We have the hard work part down, but it's still a loss." For the second time in nine months, Simon received an NHL-record long suspension. This time he was banished following his slew foot and skate stomp against Pittsburgh's Jarkko Ruutu in New York's 3-2 home loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Simon, already granted a leave by the Islanders on Monday so he could seek counseling, isn't eligible to return from his eighth NHL suspension until Feb. 21. He was suspended 25 games in March, a penalty that carried over to the first five games of this season. "That's what the league felt he deserved so we have to live by that, and we will," Guerin said. Dealing with their seventh loss in eight games (1-6-1), despite a 43-17 shots advantage was also tough to take. After five failed Buffalo advantages, Afinogenov took a cross-zone pass from Brian Campbell in the right circle. With a knee down on the dot, Afinogenov got just enough of the puck to send it past the right arm of Rick DiPietro. That helped Buffalo win its fourth straight. Derek Roy also scored for the Sabres, who split the four-game series after losing twice to the Islanders in the first two games of the season. It took a rare goal from Witt on New York's 30th shot for the Islanders to tie it at 3:50 of the third period. Fellow defenseman Radek Martinek made a fine play to keep the puck in the Buffalo zone at the right point and moved it over to Witt. He wound up above the left circle, sending a shot through a jumping screen by Sean Bergenheim for his first goal in 71 games, dating to Jan. 9 against the New York Rangers. "You get a few shots, and you start to feel more comfortable out there," Miller said. "The goal that got by, I was putting up my glove in a defensive position, and I didn't see the puck until it was too late." DiPietro kept it tied shortly after the Islanders' fourth failed power play of the night when he stretched out to block Thomas Vanek's spinning back-hander with his left pad. Buffalo entered with the NHL's seventh-best power play, but lost Roy in the first period and fellow center Tim Connolly in the third. Roy injured a shoulder, and Connolly was forced out by the flu. X-rays on Roy were negative. "He had what you'd call a nerve stinger, and we decided to hold him out the rest of the game. Tim is just sick," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We've lost these kind of games in the past. When you lose your top two centers, and they're your playmaking centers, you have to win some games ugly. That was probably the most shots we've allowed in a while." The Sabres led 1-0 after the first period despite being outshot 14-5, and protected that advantage all the way through the scoreless second when the Islanders held a 27-12 edge in shots. Roy fired a shot that hit New York defenseman Freddy Meyer, and the rebound kicked back to Roy. The next drive hit DiPietro's left leg and continued into the net at 6:11 on Buffalo's first shot. It was quite a different defensive stance by the Islanders, who allowed 41 shots in a 5-3 loss at Buffalo last Wednesday. That started the Sabres' winning streak in which they have outscored opponents 15-8. "We played the game we wanted to play. We played smart," DiPietro said. "Buffalo's bread and butter is their power play. You don't want to get to the box too many times. Unfortunately it ended up costing us at the end." Notes: RW Blake Comeau, recalled by the
Islanders to fill Simon's roster spot, played on a checking line with Richard
Park and Tim Jackman. ... Buffalo became the ninth NHL team
to reach 100 goals this season. New York has an NHL-low 72.
islesinfo.com's expanded statistics section Recent Milestones: last update 4-4-08
Future Milestones: last update 4-4-08
Scoreboard
Apr
4, 2008:
Islanders vs. Rangers
vs.
Goals: Okposo ( 2 , SO ) , Satan (
16 ) , Park ( 12 , SH & SO ) , Comeau ( SO ) Latest
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