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IslesInfo Comments: With basically two roster spots left on the 2002-03 New York Islanders, the coaching staff let it be known that four rookies were basically competing amongst each other to make the team. Those four players are Raffi Torres, Trent Hunter, Justin Mapletoft and Eric Godard. Martin Chabada recently slipped out of that group and along with goaltender Rick DiPietro was officially sent down to Bridgeport of the AHL before the game against New Jersey. Whoever gets sent down, it is good to know that the Islanders have some good talent that will definitely get the call at some point during the regular season. But as for the battle tonight, it was the 5th overall pick in the 2000 NHL draft that took that extra step. Raffi Torres opened up the scoring in New Jersey midway through the first period. A nice play by defenseman Tomi Pettinen to play the puck up to Oleg Kvasha ended with Oleg making a nifty saucer pass over to Torres. Raffi hammered the puck into the open net by a diving Brodeur. Torres almost scored earlier in the game with an eye opening deke on a 1 on 1 encounter with Devil defenseman Andrei Zyuzin. He played the puck through Zyuzin's feet and broke in all alone on goaltender Martin Brodeur and beat him with a shot, only to nail the crossbar. It was Torres' second goal of the preseason. Late in the first, Jason Wiemer scored to make it 2-0 Islanders. He, Arron Asham and Eric Godard all swarmed the net with Wiemer poking the puck through Brodeur.

- Torres and Kvasha teamed up once again 11 minutes into the second. Kvasha managed to draw two players to him before finding Torres barreling down the slot. Raffi made a head fake to confuse the Devil defensman and sent the puck over to Kenny Jonsson who was pinching down low. Jonsson scored to make it a 3-0 Isles lead. Chris Osgood played the entire game for the Isles. He was steady all game and has gotten better and better as camp progressed. Trent Hunter had a couple of good offensive plays on Brodeur but couldn't cash in. The Devils got their only goal 5 minutes into the third when Joe Nieuwendyk scored off a one timer from the slot. He received a pass from Patrick Elias, who got by Pettinen stick check.

Fight Card: Eric Godard played well in front of the net. Especially on the goal by Wiemer. New Jersey made sure to dress Jim McKenzie this game to go up against Godard. They battled early in the game but mostly grappled each others jersey. Godard did manage to land a punch on the side of McKenzie's face.

Commentary: What can the Devils complain about in this game? They dressed practically their regular season lineup this time. And we still had rookies in there competing for jobs. If you ask me, the Devils are vastly overrated. There's no way they finish ahead of the Isles this year.

Laviolette to make decisions: Raffi Torres may have cemented his position on the team with a goal and an assist against New Jersey in the win, which leaves one more spot left for Hunter, Mapletoft or Godard. But, depending on whether the Isles decide to keep both Asham and Webb, and depending on if they carry an extra forward, there may actually be no more room for any of the three rookies. Which would force all three to be sent to Bridgeport.

Islanders 3, Devils 1

By TOM CANAVAN
.c The Associated Press 

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - Raffi Torres had a goal and an assist, and Chris Osgood made 26 saves to lead the New York Islanders to a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils in the preseason finale for both teams.

Both teams will open the regular season Thursday. New Jersey will be at Ottawa and the Islanders will be in Buffalo.

Kenny Jonsson and Jason Wiemer added the other goals, and Oleg Kvasha had two nice assists for New York, which ended the preseason with four straight wins, including two straight over New Jersey.

Joe Nieuwendyk scored in the third period for the Devils, who were winless in their final three preseason games (0-2-1).

Torres, the fifth pick in the 2000 draft, gave the Islanders the lead for good at 12:32 of the first period with his second goal of the preseason. He took a great cross-ice pass from Kvasha on a 2-on-1 break and buried the puck into an open net before Martin Brodeur could get back into position.

Wiemer, acquired in the offseason from Florida, stuffed a puck under Brodeur in a goal-mouth scramble a little more than five minutes later to make it 2-0.

Jonsson also had an open net to shoot at after Kvasha and Torres made a couple of quick passes on a rush to set him up at 10:50 of the second period.

Osgood, who only faced five shots in the first period, looked very good in stopping 21 in the final 40 minutes,

Patrik Elias set up Nieuwendyk coming down the middle of the ice at 5:13 of the final period, a session in which New Jersey held a 14-2 shot advantage.

Brodeur faced 26 shots.

New York rested Alexei Yashin, Mark Parrish and Shawn Bates. Devils captain Scott Stevens was given the night off. 

Lineups:

ISLANDERS
FORWARDS
(15) Brad Isbister-(38) Dave Scatchard-(21) Trent Hunter
(16) Raffi Torres-(26) Justin Mapletoft-(12) Oleg Kvasha
(45) Arron Asham-(28) Jason Wiemer-(49) Eric Godard
(55) Jason Blake-(13) Claude Lapointe-(20) Steve Webb

DEFENSE
(29) Kenny Jonsson-(3) Adrian Aucoin
(4) Roman Hamrlik-(8) Tomi Pettinen
(33) Eric Cairns-(2) Mattias Timander

GOALTENDERS
(35) Chris Osgood
(30) Garth Snow

DEVILS
FORWARDS
(26) Patrik Elias-(25) Joe Nieuwendyk-(15) Jamie Langenbrunner
(12) Jeff Friesen-(23) Scott Gomez-(18) Sergei Brylin
(20) Jay Pandolfo-(11) John Madden-(14) Brian Gionta
(19) Jim McKenzie-(22) Mike Danton-(24) Turner Stevenson

DEFENSE
(7) Andrei Zyuzin-(28) Brian Rafalski
(3) Ken Daneyko-(10) Oleg Tverdovsky
(5) Colin White-(27) Scott Niedermayer

GOALTENDERS
(30) Martin Brodeur
(35) Corey Schwab

 

FINAL	1	2	3	Total
New York Islanders	2	1	0	3
New Jersey Devils	0	0	1	1

 

Period Summary
Shots on Goal	1	2	3	Total
New York Islanders	12	12	2	26
New Jersey Devils	5	8	14	27
First Period
Scoring: 1, Ny Islanders, Raffi Torres 2 (Oleg Kvasha), 12:32. 2, Ny Islanders, Jason Wiemer 1 (Arron Asham, Mattias Timander), 17:47. Penalties: J Mckenzie, Njd (major fighting), 7:13; E Godard, Nyi (major fighting), 7:13; C White, Njd (unsportsmanlike cond), 7:40; C White, Njd (roughing), 18:24.
Second Period
Scoring: 3, Ny Islanders, Kenny Jonsson 1 (Raffi Torres, Oleg Kvasha), 10:50. Penalties: J Wiemer, Nyi (boarding), 3:13; E Godard, Nyi (roughing), 6:25; T Pettinen, Nyi (interference), 11:16.
Third Period
Scoring: 4, New Jersey, Joe Nieuwendyk 3 (Patrik Elias), 5:13. Penalties: M Timander, Nyi (holding stick), 1:40; E Cairns, Nyi (roughing), 5:35; J Nieuwendyk, Njd (charging), 5:35.

Power-play Conversions: Ny Islanders - 0 of 2, New Jersey - 0 of 4.
Goalies : Ny Islanders, Chris Osgood (27 shots, 26 saves; record: 3-0-0). New Jersey, Martin Brodeur (26 shots, 23 saves; record: 2-1-1).
A: 10,132.
Referees: Kerry Fraser, Marc Joanette.
Linesmen: Pat Dapuzzo, Steve Miller.

IslesInfo Pregame Preview

Oct 5th: The top six forward position are locked up by Yashin, Shawn Bates, Mark Parrish, Dave Scatchard, Brad Isbister and Oleg Kvasha. Claude Lapointe, Jason Wiemer and Jason Blake are locks as well. Arron Asham will probably make the team. He has benefited from the injury absence of Steve Webb. The final two spots will be filled by the rookie crop depending on who wins out after tonight's preseason matchup with the Devils. Though coach Laviolette has also stated that he pretty much plans on going with his opening night roster in tonight's game, so he may decide during the day what rookies will make the team.

Waiver Draft: No news was made by the Isles as expected. In fact no teams made any selections after the first round. Only six players changed teams. Former Islander defenseman Mathieu Biron, who was traded for Adrian Aucoin, was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was then peddled off to Florida to join another former Islander defense prospect, Branislav Mezei, in return for RW Petr Tenkrat. Isles defenseman Ray Schultz was not selected, perhaps because of his new one way deal.

Lets Go Isles!