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Oct 18, 2003

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- "It's nice that the fans appreciate me and remember me," Czerkawski said of his five-year tenure on Long Island. He was traded last season for Arron Asham, then was signed this past summer by the Islanders as a free agent. Playing on a line with Kvasha and center Alexei Yashin seems to have a positive effect.

"Oly has quickness and size, and Yash is strong and is a great playmaker," Czerkawski said. "I just try to fit in somewhere in between."

Kvasha capitalized at 4:10 of the final period on the Islanders' fifth power-play attempt when he was fed a perfect cross-ice pass from Adrian Aucoin, and tapped the puck into the open left side past Roberto Luongo.

Viktor Kozlov scored Florida's goal and Luongo had 44 saves, but the Panthers lost their second straight.

"The score was 2-1, but let's be honest," Florida coach Mike Keenan said. "If it wasn't for Roberto, it would have been a bigger margin of victory for them."

The teams traded goals in the second period. The Panthers got on the board first just 53 seconds in, when Kozlov took a pass from Marcus Nilson, circled behind the Islanders' net and sent a short-side backhand home.

New York tied it on a power-play goal at 15:08. Luongo made a pad save on Alexei Yashin's shot, but the rebound went to Czerkawski on the right side, and he roofed a wrist shot.

Keenan was not happy about the work of referees Dan Marouelli and Eric Furlatt.

"I thought there were some poor calls," Keenan said. "On the game winner, (Dave) Scatchard definitely took a dive. There was some pretty poor judgment."

Luongo said the Islanders were able to get so many shots because they are constantly around his net.

"They go hard at the net, and that's how you score goals in this league," Luongo said. "On the positive side for us, we didn't give up any odd-man rushes or breakaways. But we have to get some more goals. We're not going to win scoring just one goal."

Rick DiPietro made 20 saves for New York.

Notes

• Julius Erving and Denis Potvin, Long Island sports legends, dropped the ceremonial first puck.
• Kvasha led both teams with seven shots.
• The Islanders were the next-to-last team to have their home opener. St. Louis began its first home game one hour later than New York's.
• A sellout crowd of 16,234 attended -- at roughly the same time as the Yankees played Game 1 of the World Series.

islesinfo comments: 

Fights: None.

Isles Scratches: 

Lineups:

ISLANDERS
FORWARDS
((12) Oleg Kvasha-(79) Alexei Yashin-(21) Mariusz Czerkawski
(17) Shawn Bates-(27) Michael Peca-(37) Mark Parrish
(55) Jason Blake-(38) Dave Scatchard-(45) Arron Asham
(28) Jason Wiemer-(26) Justin Papineau-(10) Sean Bergenheim

DEFENSEMEN
(29) Kenny Jonsson-(3) Adrian Aucoin
(4) Roman Hamrlik-(24) Radek Martinek
(44) Janne Niinimaa-(33) Eric Cairns

GOALTENDERS
(39) Rick DiPietro
(30) Garth Snow

FLORIDA PANTHERS
FORWARDS
(18) Marcus Nilsson-(12) Olli Jokinen-(25) Viktor Kozlov
(14) Niklas Hagman-(22) Kristian Huselius-(16) Nathan Horton
(27) Jaroslav Bednar-(44) Gregory Campbell-(11) Mikael Samuelsson
(24) Darcy Hordichuk-(15) Eric Messier-(20) Craig MacDonald

DEFENSE
(4) Jay Bouwmeester-(2) Lyle Odelein
(5) Branislav Mezei-(26) Mike Van Ryn
(6) Andreas Lilja-(7) Pavel Trnka

GOALTENDERS
(1) Roberto Luongo
(31) Steve Shields

 

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period Scoring

No Scoring 1st Period Penalties NYI: Jason Wiemer (Highsticking, 4:00) 11:09

2nd Period Scoring

FLA:Victor Kozlov 2 (Marcus Nilson) 0:53 NYI:Mariusz Czerkawski 3 (Alexei Yashin, Roman Hamrlik) PP 15:08 2nd Period Penalties FLA: Eric Messier (Slashing, 2:00) 3:14 FLA: Branislav Mezei (crosscheck, 2:00) 4:02 FLA: Kristian Huselius (Interference, 2:00) 14:31 FLA: Branislav Mezei (Tripping, 2:00) 15:53

3rd Period Scoring

NYI:Oleg Kvasha 1 (Adrian Aucoin, Mariusz Czerkawski) PP 4:10 3rd Period Penalties FLA: Pavel Trnka (Clipping, 2:00) 2:40 NYI: Janne Niinimaa (Hooking - Obstruction, 2:00) 4:18 FLA: Mike Van Ryn (Holding, 2:00) 6:24 FLA: Oli Jokinen (Holding - Obstruction, 2:00) 11:01 FLA: Oli Jokinen (Boarding, 2:00) 13:38 NYI: Michael Peca (Roughing, 2:00) 13:38 FLA: Nathan Horton (Roughing, 2:00) 18:27 NYI: Shawn Bates (Roughing, 2:00) 18:27

Shots	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Florida Panthers	9	5	7	21
New York Islanders	11	19	16	46

Power-Play Conversions: FLA: 0 of 3, NYI: 2 of 7

Goalies:
Ny Islanders: Rick DiPietro (21 shots, 20 saves; record: 2-0-1). 
Florida: Roberto Luongo (46 shots, 44 saves).

Stars: Mariusz Czerkawski(NYI), Rick DiPietro(NYI), Roberto Luongo(FLA)
Referees: Eric Furlatt, Dan Marouelli
Linesmen: Derek Amell, Kevin Collins 

Lets Go Isles!