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ISLES INFO |
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ISLES INFO |
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IslesInfo Comments: The Islanders did not start dominating on the shot clock in this game until midway through the game. At the end of the first the Florida Panthers were doing well for themselves as the Islanders led in shot by just one, 11-10. The score was also not too bad for the road team as the two teams ended the first 20 minutes tied 1-1. Overall, the Islanders were pretty impressive on the night with the penalty kill as they went 7-7, killing off all of Florida's advantages. But it almost didn't go that way as Florida took a 1-0 lead just seconds after their first powerplay opportunity had ended. With the Panthers shooting the puck in from the point, they crowded the net around Chris Osgood. Ozzie lost his stick in the fray and eventually lost sight of the puck as well. Seven seconds after Claude Lapointe came out of the penalty box, Mike Keenan's favorite player Stephane Matteau nudged the puck weakly seemingly wide of the net. But the puck found Osgood's stick laying on the ice and redirected towards the open goal mouth. Before Kenny Jonsson could corral the puck away from the goal the puck had just trickled over the red goal line where referee Paul Stewart was stationed to call it a goal. The Islanders would soon go up on the powerplay for the second time. Their first chance in the game was pretty horrible. A minute in to the powerplay the Islanders were given a 5 on 3 advantage. They worked the puck around but Jonsson was showing a lot of hesitation to shoot the puck on Panther goalie Roberto Luongo. The Islanders could not score on the 5 on 3 and things were not looking good once again but late in the second powerplay Jonsson finally decided to shoot the puck after calling for a pass from Shawn Bates. It seemed like Jonsson's shot did not go exactly where he was shooting it as it went top left corner over Luongo. But the Islanders will take it anyway they can. - The second period would see more offense from the Islanders as they outshot the Panthers 20-4. Claude Lapointe would get the Isles the lead at 3:15 of the second when he would surprise Luongo with an in tight shot. Lappy got the chance thanks to a rub out play by Jason Blake, leaving the puck just sitting there for Lapointe to bat home. It was Lapointe's third of the season and third in as many games. He also scored an unassisted goal in the game Tuesday night against Carolina. A little over two minutes later the Islanders got the powerplay going again when Adrian Aucoin wristed a hard awkward shot towards the net. That put the Islanders up 3-1 and was Aucoin's second of the season. The Islanders were looking to blow the game open at that point, but the Panthers would score two of their own on only 4 shots. A trend the Islanders would like to see go away. Lance Ward, who scored only one goal all of last year, would make it 3-2 when he circled down low and had a clean lane to the net and Osgood. He tucked the puck underneath a sprawling Ozzie to take some of the sail out of the Isles. That was at 11:52 of the second. At 17:11 Brad Ference, not exactly known for scoring himself, found the net while Peter Worrell managed to screen Osgood in front. It looked like the Islanders might go into the third period with a 3-3 tie after all their hard work. But they managed to get the lead back and go up 4-3 in the last minute of the second period at 9:16. Alexei Yashin, on his 6th shot of the game, circled behind the net and found the back of the twine through a crowded crease. The Isles were about to go up on the powerplay because Olli Jokinen of the Panthers crosschecked another Islander forward down hard in the goal mouth. - In the third the Panthers would get 3 powerplay advantages to the Islanders one. But the Isles played great defense to preserve their 4-3 lead. Justin Mapletoft got plenty of penalty killing duty once again in this game and in the third. He also shows an incredible knack for drawing penalties on the opposition. He drew two throughout the game. Raffi Torres also drew one earlier on. With two minutes remaining in the game, Mark Parrish broke down on a two on one. He attempted to send the puck across to Bates, but the Pabther defender went down and blocked the pass. The puck quickly came right back out to Parrish who tried to shovel the puck up into the open net. The puck was a bit close to his feet and it lobbed hard right into the left side post. It could have been game over right there. As the game drew down to the final seconds, Florida pulled Luongo for the extra man. Jason Blake, who was everywhere once again in this game, grabbed the puck in the neutral zone and skated in with one Panther back. He held the puck long enough to feather it over to Arron Asham, who slammed the puck into the empty net for his first goal as an Islander. It was nice to see Blake be so unselfish, even if he may not have had an open lane at the net. Also, Asham just seconds earlier made a flat pass down low in the Panthers end that almost ended up going back the other way for a breakaway. In the end the Islanders skated away with the 5-3 win and pulled back to .500 at 3-3-1-0. Fight Card: Eric Cairns vs. Peter Worrell. This was an all out heavyweight brawl. And I guess that's good because heavyweights should fight heavyweights. The only thing i'm not sure I like are the uppercuts. Somebody could really get hurt if one of those connects. This is not professional boxing. Two guys should just go toe to toe and throw punches. Both men traded punches without really connecting much. But the decision has to go to Worrell since he managed to land with his second uppercut and drop Cairns to one knee. Cairns did quickly get back up though. Commentary: The Islanders got the win that they really needed. They couldn't afford to drop to two games under .500. Like Osgood said after the game, the Islanders may be actually playing better than when they went on their early season run in 2001-02. But a lot of it has to do with bounces. If the Islanders can keep up this offensive dominance they should win a lot of games. The Flyers are in town next. The Islanders have outshot every team they have faced this season except for the Flyers when they visited Philadelphia last week.
Report Card: Brad Isbister: No shots and a -1. I don't know what is going to light a fire under this guy. Alexei Yashin: Scored a goal, the game winner, and added two assists. Killed penalties. A great game overall for Yash. Shawn Bates: got two assists and is now back to the point per game mark. Mark Parrish: didn't record a point but played a good game. Screened Luongo on the Aucoin powerplay goal. Almost scored late in the game. Raffi Torres: good game. drew a penalty. Throws the body as good as Steve Webb. Dave Scatchard: quiet offensively but good defensively. Arron Asham: made a horrible pass late in the game that almost led to a breakaway for the Panthers. But seconds later got the empty netter thanks to Jason Blake. Is amazingly 5th on the team in scoring. Jason Wiemer: Not that big of a game considering it was his first game against the Panthers, who he played for last year. Jason Blake: Showed his speed and was all over the ice. Assisted on Asham's empty netter by not being selfish. Could always use the goal himself. Even though he didn't get an assist because he didn't touch the puck, Blake rubbed out the Panther player that led to Lapointe's go ahead goal when it was 1-1. Blake was named second star of the game. Claude Lapointe: 3 game goal scoring streak. His goal was big for the Islanders and gave them the lead. Lapointe is proving he can still chip in offensively. Justin Mapletoft: played well on second line center. Drew two penalties against Florida. Steve Webb: Came back into the lineup tonight, played his third game of the season. Banged his body around and got the crowd chanting STEVE WEBB!! on a few occasions. Asked before the game if he was 100% Webb responded that he was going to play like he's 100%. Defense: Roman Hamrlik: He led all players in icetime tonight. Yes, Hamrlik did, not Aucoin. Hamrlik logged 30:51 while Aucoin logged 26:28. Was a +2. Adrian Aucoin: good defensively, as usual. But needs to fix his problem of not hitting the net enough. Eric Cairns: not bad. Had a good heavyweight fight with Peter Worrell. Kenny Jonsson: Once again hesitated to shoot the puck on the powerplay. When he finally did, he scored. Left the game with an apparent hand injury of some sort. We should find out sometime tomorrow what his status is. You may remember Kenny had a problem with a fingernail back in February during the Olympics. A shot of him tonight on TV showed a bit of blood on his hand. He was slashed by a Panther player in the closing minutes. Radek Martinek: pretty steady. should get better and better as he logs more games. Got some powerplay time tonight. Mattias Timander: steady. As usual nothing flashy. Pretty much an even teal game. Goal: Chris Osgood: Once again did not face many shots, 22 on the night. Gave up two goals on only 4 shots in the second period. Probably wishes he had another chance on the Lance Ward goal. But he got the win. Still needs to tighten up his game. With Philly coming in on Saturday, Laviolette may go back with Garth Snow. Coach: Lavvy did a good job tonight. He kept up with Keenan by arguing a call, shortly after Keenan argued one himself. Lavvy had a funny moment after the game when a reporters cell phone rang and Lavvy asked him if he was taking calls after staring at him for a long minute.
Islanders 5, Panthers 3
Lineups: ISLANDERS DEFENSE GOALTENDERS FLORIDA DEFENSE GOALTENDERS
Power-play Conversions:
FLA - 0 of 7, NYI - 2 of 7.
IslesInfo Pregame Preview Preview Isles Hope to Improve Special Teams Oct 24: The Isles host the Florida Panthers tonight in the second game of their four game home stand. The first game did not exactly go their way as they dropped a 4-1 game to Carolina. Special teams let the Isles down, but they are piling up the shots. - The Islanders have widely outshot the opponent in 5 of their six games played, yet their record is only 2-3-1-0. The powerplay has fizzled going 3-44. At the same time, the penalty killing unit has not faired that much better going a very unimpressive 30-40. Coach Peter Laviolette commented that it's not because of a lack for trying, but the bounces are just not going the Isles way right now. Most believe that if the Islanders keep up their offensive dominance then eventually the powerplay will break out and score a bunch of goals. With Oleg Kvasha out for at least the next two weeks, Laviolette stated yesterday that he will be moving wingers Shawn Bates and Mark Parrish back up to the top line with Alexei Yashin. Steve Webb will return to the lineup in place of Kvasha. Chris Osgood will probably get the start tonight as he has compiled a career record of 8-1-3 against Florida. Florida and the Isles have been trading partners a few times over the last couple years. The most recent new Islander from Florida, Jason Wiemer, will get a chance to face his old team for the first time. The Islanders need get back to the .500 mark to stay with the pack. With the recent success of Tampa Bay and now Florida, the race in the East could be even more intense. Earlier this week I mentioned that everyone had a chance except maybe Florida and Atlanta. I probably spoke too soon about Florida. But we all know it's a long season and the first true analysis won't be made until the first quarter mark. Preview: Jokinen Hot The Islanders will see a lot of old faces tonight when the Florida Panthers visit the Nassau Coliseum. They will have to keep an eye on Olli Jokinen, who last night scored 2 goals and an assist in Florida's 4-1 win over the struggling Leafs. - Jokinen may finally be realizing his potential. So far in his first seven games of the season, he is leading the Panthers in scoring with 5 goals and 4 assists for 9 points. In goal will probably be once highly touted Isles prospect Roberto Luongo, who has started every game so far for the Panthers. Though since they played last night, coach Mike Keenan may decide to give newly acquired backup Jani Hurme the start in goal. Florida has some outstanding young talent in the likes of Kristian Huselius, Stephen Weiss, Denis Shvidki and 2002 first pick overall Jay Bouwmeester. Huselius just recently returned to the lineup after missing the first three games of the season. He has 3 goals in 4 games. Weiss has been the subject of a lot of controversy lately as Keenan tried to demote him to the AHL, but GM Rick Dudley over-ruled that decision. Weiss has 3 assists which is tied with Raffi Torres for the NHL rookie lead. Florida has two former Islander defensemen, neither of whom may be in the lineup. Mathieu Biron was acquired in the waiver draft before the season began. He was scratched for Florida's first 5 games before seeing action in their Monday night win over Atlanta. He was back to the sidelines against Toronto last night. Branislav Mezei will definitely not see action as he is recuperating from a broken ankle. The Islanders also recently traded Juraj Kolnik to the Panthers for defenseman Sven Butenschon, both of whom are playing in the AHL.
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Lets Go Isles! |
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1998-2003 Tom Mascioli
