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ISLES INFO |
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ISLES INFO |
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Eastern Conference
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April 19th: The Isles began their first playoff game in 8 years just the way most fans might have wanted. Slow down the play and take the Toronto fans out of the game. And just 5 minutes in they had accomplished that with numerous play stoppages and a penalty call on Leaf defenseman Cory Cross. About 20 seconds into the powerplay Kenny Jonsson fired a dump in around the glass that caught a weak panel and shattered it, causing a 10 minute delay. When play finally resumed with a new piece of glass, the Islanders would manage to score thanks again to Jonsson. He would literally blast the puck by Curtis Joseph who was backed up all the way into his net after Alexei Yashin tried to carry the puck into the crease. The Islanders crashed the net and Jonsson scored. The Islanders led the game at that point in shots 5-1 but they slowly got away from their game from there on. The Islanders do not play the trap, but they make it extremely hard for the opposing team to get into the Islanders zone. But Toronto was getting the majority of the shots skating through the second period. Chris Osgood did have one close call in the first period when the puck was shot off the crossbar and popped up into the air. Ozzie did not know where it was, but luckily Eric Cairns was there to defend the loose puck from a Toronto skater. - In the second period the Islanders would kill off a penalty to Roman Hamrlik and would end up with 2 powerplays of their own. They could have gained a 2-0 lead which now in hindsight would have been huge. If they had the Islanders would probably have won the game. By the end of the second period the Islanders were being outshot 16-8. - The Islanders were playing well at their blueline and stopping every attempt by Toronto to carry the puck in at the end of the second and start of the third period. But a little over 4 minutes in the Leafs finally caught a lucky break. Michael Peca failed to clear the puck deep in the Islanders end. He changed course and fired the puck up the board to Shawn Bates who was waiting, only to be checked into the boards. Former Islander Travis Green was there to grab the puck and send it toward the net, where Darcy Tucker manages to get a stick on it for a minor deflection. Enough for it to get by Osgood to tie the game. Osgood would stop a partial breakaway shortly after to Tie Domi. But with the Maple Leafs coming on they would yet again get another bounce when none other than Domi would deflect a shot off Kip Millers stick. The puck slowly slid under Osgood's pad to put the Leafs up 2-1. Now the Islanders had to pick up their pace. They managed to get two great opportunities on a penalty kill when Jason Blake and Claude Lapointe skated in on two separate two on one attempts. The first time Blake tried to feather the puck over to Lapointe, but the Toronto defenseman just for the blade of his stick on it. The second chance Blake took the shot but it was deflected wide. Osgood would then make a save on a breakaway by Alexander Mogilny to keep it 2-1. The Islanders pulled Osgood in the last minute to try and send the game to overtime. In the last 30 seconds Kenny Jonsson would gain the puck in Toronto's end off a faceoff. He managed to show poise and get a couple of Leaf players to go down, but he never really had a clean shot. He skated around, got Joseph down on the ice sprawled and then sent the puck back up through the slot. The closest Islander was Mariusz Czerkawski, but unfortunately he was a stride too far and the puck slid out of the zone. Jonsson would get another chance but his shot was blocked by a sliding Leaf, otherwise it would have made it to the net. - Right before the final buzzer had sounded both Peca and Dave Scatchard showed their displeasure with Shayne Corson, who does nothing in the game but stick to Yashin like glue. Laviolette tried to play mind games with the Leafs and Corson by playing Steve Webb as sort of a shadow's shadow on Yashin's wing for portions of the night. Well, to be totally honest, even after viewing the replay it was very hard to see but it was reported that Corson wacked his stick into the head of Scatchard after Scatchard asked Corson if he wanted "to go", meaning to fight. Corson waved his sticked around frantically at Dave and almost butted him in the face with the handle of his stick. If you blinked you may have missed the contact with the stick blade on Scatchard's head, who declined post game interviews because he wasn't feeling good from the wack. As a fan I wish Corson would have been suspended, but you just knew that NHL VP Colin Campbell was not going to view this one as a major infraction. But he did fine him, which does show they believe he did something wrong. So why not even a 1 game suspension?
Eastern Conference Quarter-Final
New York Islanders: 42-28-8-4,
96 points, 5th seed in Eastern Conference Season Series: Islanders won the season series going 3-0-0-1 Schedule: |
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News: April 20, 2002 |
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1998-2003 Tom Mascioli
