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ISLES INFO |
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ISLES INFO |
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Menu NYI Database Transactions
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IslesInfo Comments: The rivalry started out living up to all the hype and circumstance that we have come to love about Isles-Rangers in the past. Both teams played well and the first period remained scoreless throughout. Even though the tempo was high it seemed like both teams were testing each other out, waiting for something to happen. But the Islanders, who were wearing their home whites so that the Rangers could wear their Liberty jerseys, did have a slight edge as far as chances early on. The line that dominated the Tampa Bay Lightning, made up of Dave Scatchard, Jason Wiemer and Jason Blake, led the way as they were once again flying around the ice and getting to every loose puck they possibly could. But three penalties by the Islanders midway in, including two by Blake and one by Mattias Weinhandl killed some of the Islanders momentum. The Islanders managed to kill of all three penalties with solid penalty killing as they held the Rangers to just two shots total. At one point the Isles led in shots 9-3, and out shot the Rangers 10-7 in the first period. - The second period was pretty much more of the same for about the first 5 minutes. The Islanders got their first powerplay of the game when Dale Purinton was whistled to the box. The Isles failed to log a shot of their own on the advantage. The Rangers shortly began to get the Islanders running around a bit. At 6:24, the Rangers leading scorer defenseman Tom Poti put the Rangers on the board at 1-0. The play originated on a bit of a bad play by Alexei Yashin. He would grab the puck off the boards and his pass was intercepted at the top of the blueline. The puck was then dished over to Poti. He skated into the Islanders zone and with a clean lane took a pretty stoppable shot on Ozzie. Osgood must have misjudged it because the puck hit his pad and kept going into the net for Poti's 3rd of the season. Later in the period Eric Cairns made a beautiful defensive play on Petr Nedved in front of the Islanders net that stopped him from getting a tap in. Chris Osgood would make a spectacular sliding glove save on Mark Messier's backhander. The Isles would get two more powerplay opportunities in the period but were unable to mount any attack as they only mustered up 2 shots on their 3 advantages in the game. The Rangers would get another advantage but the Islanders PK, which is now improved ever so slightly to 28th in the league, was up to the task. By the end of the period, the Islanders had played well, but they had yet to really test the young Ranger goaltender Dan Blackburn. - The Islanders came out in the third looking very determined. You could just see it on captain Michael Peca's face on the bench. Coach Laviolette obviously had something to say between periods and the Islanders just simply came out in the period with the attitude that they were going to win, no ifs, ands or buts about it. At 2:15 Radek Dvorak was sent to the box for holding Mark Parrish's stick. On the ensuing powerplay faceoff in the Rangers zone, Weinhandl chipped the puck quickly over to Yashin low in the faceoff circle. After faking a pass Yashin turned and fired the puck on the net where Parrish deflected it in on Blackburn. The goalie made the save but kicked it back out to Parrish's stick and he buried it 8 seconds into the man advantage for a 1-1 tie. Parrish notched his 7th goal of the season and 3rd in the last two games. The Islanders from there kept up the pressure with ferocious fore-checking led by the top line as well as the Scatchard line. Yashin, looking to make up for his first period bad pass, made up for it on the tying goal and was looking for more. He was holding possession of the puck at will in the Rangers end and none of them could take the puck away. After a flurry of saves by Osgood, Darius Kasparaitis took a run at Weinhandl high in the Islanders zone. Somehow the young Swede relayed the puck up to Yashin who was once again controlling play in the Ranger end. With a man on him Yashin skated up near the blueline and almost lost the puck. As he was falling down he reached out and slung the puck down into the slot to a waiting Brad Isbister. Izzy, who has struggled lately with his puck handling, stepped into Blackburn with a man all over his back and stuffed it underneath the goaltender's pads for a 2-1 Islander lead at 8:20. Just over 2 minutes later the top line would strike again. Yashin would send the puck over to a streaking Isbister into the Rangers zone. Isbister got his skate on the puck and kicked it right into the goal post. If it had gone in it probably wouldn't have counted. But the puck bounced back out right on Isbister's stick and at a sharp angle he deposited the rebound into the open side at 10:43. The insurance goal was Isbister's 6th of the season. What was interesting was before Isbister scored both his goals he was challenged in a sort of way by Messier. The Ranger captain motioned to give Isbister an elbow and the Islander winger told Messier he wasn't very happy about that. For the rest of the play it seemed that Izzy played mad. Perhaps it was the right spark Isbister needed. The Isles finished out the rest of the game including killing off another Ranger powerplay late with ease. Isbister was on the ice with Blackburn pulled, looking for the hat trick. - The Isles finished their 5 game road trip 3-1-1 and gained 7 out of a possible 10 points. They are now unbeaten in four, 3-0-1, coming back home for a game Wednesday night. The game will be a rematch at home against the Ottawa Senators, who the Isles lost to back on November 12th 5-3. The Isles will be looking to end an Ottawa dominance at the Nassau Coliseum that stretches over 18 games, going back to 1996. The Islanders will unveil their orange third jerseys on Monday and wear them for the first time Wednesday. Also, the Islanders have not beaten a team following a win over the Rangers in more than the last 10 consecutive tries. The Isles play 4 of their next 5 games at home. The one road game in between will be in, yup....Ottawa.
Fight Card: Surprisingly, no fights in this one. What bothers me is most of the Ranger media felt that the Rangers should have tried fighting with the Islanders because they showed no fight in the game. So where was Matthew Barnaby and Sandy McCarthy they asked? I think the Islanders can hold their own. And maybe it was nice to see the two teams play hockey for a change instead of dropping the gloves. Commentary: Wooooooo Hoooooo! Sweet!!! Didn't you just have the feeling the Islanders were coming out for business in the third period?? There was no way they were losing. You never felt they weren't coming back to win this game. So what if it was one goal in the third period? The Rangers feel they should have won it. One goal is nothing to come back from. Anyway, nice to see Michael Peca playing a big role in this game. And I have to share something with you guys. Early in the third I was looking at Isbister and thinking out loud: man, we gotta get rid of this guy. Well, once again Izzy has me rethinking. But Yashin was solid in the third and look out for Weinhandl. When he starts chipping in some goals he will be a force to be reckoned with. Can they send him down now when Kvasha returns? May be difficult now. The boys showed some heart tonight! We are in this thing baby!! Now let's get Ottawa Wednesday night!
Report Card: Brad Isbister: No, he's not Todd Bertuzzi. But if he plays more like he did in the third period today I will be happy to just have: Brad Isbister. In my mind, this was the best game of his career. Alexei Yashin: Made a bad pass in the first period. But he made up for it in the third. Three assists in the third period. Shawn Bates: Played well on the Lucky 7's line. Parrish is playing well right now but sometimes he is playing alongside Yashin. The more Peca gets back into shape, he and Bates should hopefully get back on track. They are still contributing defensively and offensively, just not finishing. Mark Parrish: HUGE goal. It got the Islanders going and started on their roll. Parrish's 7th now leads the team after getting 3 in the last 2 games. Dave Scatchard: His line was a workhorse again tonight as they fore-checked relentlessly. t's amazing how often they steal the puck and get an offensive chance off it. Jason Wiemer: Finally he is fitting in, especially over this road trip. Hopefully he can continue it at home and the fans will start to appreciate him. Jason Blake: Has been doing everything lately. Even throwing hits at big guys like Eric Lindros. Lindros partially speared Blake late in the first period but Blake came back to be his usual water bug self on the Isles powerful checking/crunch line. Claude Lapointe: I'm sure he really wanted to play in this game and early on it looked like the Isles really could have used him. But Claude's foot was too swollen to get into his skate and he was a gametime decision. No doubt he'll be back Wednesday night. Steve Webb: Threw a couple of big hits. The speed of the game played out and Webb didn't have to get his nose all too dirty in efforts to draw penalties. Eric Manlow: Took Lapointe's place. Played well on the fourth line in limited duty. Made no mistakes. Arron Asham: Played on the fourth line, not too often but when he was out there he took the body and got it done. Oleg Kvasha: IR. Michael Peca: Probably played more minutes than any other game so far. And more crucial minutes. In fact Peca was taking faceoff's in the Islanders defensive end in the last minute of the game. Peca just seems to have that look back as well. It's a confident, determined look. He had it when the Isles came out for the third and he showed it by being even more involved. He is definitely getting back to form. Mattias Weinhandl: Wow, 3 assists in the third period for a career game so far. It's only a matter of time before he notches his first NHL goal. A few more games like this and Weinhandl may be a permanent fixture on Yashin's right side. He just has to figure out his spots more and the puck will come to him for that goal. Defense: Roman Hamrlik: He had a great game on defense this afternoon, especially in the first period. At time he was playing the puck with confodence and skating it into the offensive zone. Nice to see him on the first period intermission interview as Roman does not get interviewed too often. Adrian Aucoin: What else can you say but solid. You really begin to appreciate what strength he has when he stays out there on the ice for so long and often never seems to miss a beat. Eric Cairns: Cairns has been playing well lately not only defensively, but offensively as well. He jumps into the play just at the right time and in his rare chances gets the puck on the net. Kenny Jonsson: Took a big hit behind the net by Lindros and missed some time in the third period. But it may have been equipment related. Jonsoon played a strong game. Radek Martinek: sent to Bridgeport. Mattias Timander: Was solid as well. At times lately you can see why the coaching staff compared him a little bit to Jonsson. Hopefully he will remain playing this way. Sven Butenschon: He got a lot of ice time tonight and played very well. Has fit right into the Isles defensive unit. Goal: Garth Snow: Suspended game 1/2. Chris Osgood: Had a great game and was named the third star of the game behind Yashin and Isbister. Ozzie made some key saves in the second period to keep the Islanders down by only one. Also, i meant to mention that Ozzie recently moved into 8th on the Islanders all time list of games played by a goaltender. Rick DiPietro: Was called up this morning to replace Garth Snow as backup. He will most likely do the same Wednesday night.
Coaches Laviolette must have said something to the guys between the second and third periods that really lit a fire underneath the team. Special Teams Excellent tonight. The Isles went 1-4 on the powerplay. Of course the big powerplay goal tied the game by Parrish. The PK went a perfect 5-5 and has crept up to 28th ranked in the NHL. GM Mike Milbury had a big talk with the players following the road trip opening loss to Boston, his almer mater and a team a hates to lose against. He told the team he felt they were a lot better than they were showing. He challenged them to show that the managerial staff wasn't wrong about this team. Mike told them that they are a lot better than they were showing and if they gets their act together they could beat a lot of teams in the league. But if things didn't improve they were forcing his hand by the end of the road trip. The players obviously responded.
Islanders Rally to Beat Rangers 3-1
Lineups: ISLANDERS DEFENSEMEN GOALTENDERS RANGERS DEFENSEMEN GOALTENDERS
Power-play Conversions: Ny
Islanders - 1 of 4, Ny Rangers - 0 of 5.
IslesInfo Pregame Preview Preview Battle of New York I Nov 23: The Islanders end their 5 game road trip with a visit to Madison Square Garden where they will renew their heated rivalry with the NY Rangers as well as end the trip on a winning note. Isles vs. Rangers Preview: The Isles are looking up as of late as the team seems to be coming together for the first time all season long. But there is still some work left to do and a few teams ahead of them that they need to catch. One of those teams is the New York Rangers, who have 21 points and are 8th in the Eastern Conference. They are 5 points ahead of the Isles who have 16 points and are preparing for a huge 4 point match up. This game is crucial for the Isles because a win can put them right back in the pack, 3 points behind the Rangers. A loss could put the Isles 7 points behind the Rangers and the last playoff spot, pending on what other teams in the conference do. 14 of the 15 teams in the East are active Saturday. That's all except Florida, who skated to a 3-3 tie Friday night in Phoenix. Also, the Isles would be off until Wednesday night when they will unveil their third jerseys at home against Ottawa, so that would give some time to drop even further out with a loss Saturday afternoon. So the Isles have to come out with guns blazing because this game has some serious early implications. The Islanders are currently 2-1-1 on this road trip and undefeated in their last three, 2-0-1 since losing the road trip opener in Boston. The Isles are coming into a place where they seem to enjoy playing. They are 5-1-1 in their last seven visits to Manhattan. Last season the teams played 5 games, three at the Nassau Coliseum. The road team won in each contest. This year the Isles visit MSG three times. And this year there will be new storylines to add to this already great rivalry. There won't be any chicken dances or Theo Fleury to annoy the Isles, but there should still be plenty of hitting, scoring and perhaps rough stuff as Eric Cairns, Steve Webb and Jason Wiemer get reacquainted with Sandy McCarthy, Matthew Barnaby and Krzysztof Oliwa. Notes: With the two game suspension to Garth Snow handed down by the NHL on Friday, the Islanders are most likely to call up Rick DiPietro from Bridgeport to backup Chris Osgood in each of the next two games....Still no word on the status of Claude Lapointe. Perhaps and hopefully he is doing fine and preparing for today's game.
Isles Face Trotts for 1st Time The Isles face Bryan Trottier, arguably the greatest Islander ever and their all-time leading scorer, as he heads up the Rangers bench in his first game against his former team this afternoon. Both teams need points to stay in the playoff hunt. When considering the Rangers attack, your first thoughts may be that of Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros or maybe even ageless Mark Messier. But leading the team in scoring thus far is defenseman Tom Poti, who was acquired by the Rangers at the trade deadline last season from Edmonton. The offensive minded Poti, who was rumored to have been some interest to the Isles last year as well, is 2-13-15 in 22 games played. Right behind him though is the ever dangerous sniper Bure with 8-6-14 in 19 games. Incredibly, Messier is leading this team in goals with 10 and has 3 assists for 13 points in 22 games. Petr Nedved is having a good season after being much maigned in the past on Broadway. He has accounted for 8-5-13 in 22 games. Any time you face the Rangers you have to keep an eye on Brian Leetch. He is 3-9-12 in 22 games. One player the Rangers are very high on is Mikael Samuelsson who is 5-6-11 in 22 games. Surprisingly, Lindros is only 7th on the team in scoring with 9 points in 21 games. Both he and Bure are struggling as of late and the Islanders are hoping they don't find their games any time soon. Rem Murray is a steady third line player who gives his all every shift out there and has contributed 6 goals this season. The Rangers vastly overpaid this summer for free agent talent that hasn't really panned out for them at all. Bobby Holik is not expected back for a while with a hip problem and has already missed more games with the Rangers than he had in his entire last 6 years with the Devils. Darius Kasparaitis, who many thought would end up back on the Island this year, has been terrible defensively and is a -8 to show for it. The Rangers have stocked up on ex-Islanders as Vladimir Malakhov and Ted Donato will join Kasparaitis against the surging of late NY Islanders. So both teams, who are off to a bit of a slow start, will be looking to get better with a win against each other and keep the other one down.
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Lets Go Isles! |
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1998-2003 Tom Mascioli
