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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: Bit of a turn around in this game for the Islanders as compared to the first three games of the season. The Islanders came into the game tonight drastically outshooting their opponents. By the end of the first period against the Flyers the Islanders were being outshot 14-7. This had to be expected since it was the Flyers home opener and you are probably not going to outshoot the Flyers on their home ice most of the time. The Islanders usually play a conservative defensive game in Philly, and also try to utilize their speed against the Flyers bigger defenders. The game remained scoreless until about the 10 minute mark of the first period when Todd Fedoruk surprisingly put the Flyers up 1-0 when he gained a rebound in front of Garth Snow. Snow had no chance as Fedoruk deposited it on the far open side of the net. Fedoruk had a pretty good period for his team as he ended the period getting into a scrap with Eric Cairns. - The Islanders were a little better in the second period trailing the Flyers in shots 14-10. The Islanders took a ridiculous 6 straight penalties in the period, including three in a span of 2:23. This resulted in a span where the Flyers had two different 5 on 3 powerplay advantages. The Islanders did a fantastic job killing off the first 5 on 3 which lasted about 50 seconds. The second 5 on 3 saw Adrian Aucoin get sent to the box. This time the two man advantage was for a full minute. The Islanders killed that advantage off nicely as well and just about 20 seconds after the 5 on 3 ended Shawn Bates would tie the game up at 1-1 with a shorthanded goal. Bates pounced on the puck in front of Flyer goaltender Roman Cechmanek after Arron Asham deflected a puck over to him that was centered from behind the net. There was a delayed penalty call against the Flyers on the play, but it was negated since Bates scored. Now the Isles had to finish killing the rest of Aucoin's penalty. It ended at 11:42 but at 11:47 Michal Handzus would gain the puck in the slot for the Flyers and fire a top shelf shot by Snow to regain their one goal lead at 2-1. The Islanders took yet another penalty at 11:48, the second penalty of the period by Asham. The Flyers would put on some pressure in the offensive zone and with six seconds remaining on the call got a powerplay goal by Jeremy Roenick. JR expressed how happy he was to be getting the end of the calls from the referees to Stan Fischler following the end of the period. The Islanders got two late powerplay opportunities of their own but put up nominal pressure. - The third period saw much of the same for the first 10 minutes. The Isles were skating and trying to generate some offense but it wasn't looking good for a while. Just after the 11 minute mark Raffi Torres, playing in his second game of the season, chipped the puck up to Bates from the neutral zone while falling down. Bates relayed the puck up to Mark Parrish who bobbled the puck as he tried to gain control. When he finally did he sling shot the puck at Cechmanek and it manages to find it's way up into the net. The Isles noe trailed 3-2 with some momentum. The Islanders kept up the pressure and with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game Brad Isbister decided to rush the puck into the Flyers zone using his powerful skating stride. As he cut to the right of the Flyers goal Isbister waited until he almost reached the goal line before unleashing a sharp angle shot. Cechmanek made the save but couldn't gain control of the puck. With a heavily covered Alexei Yashin skating in looking for the rebound, Eric Desjardins attempted to clear the puck from the crease by swatting it away. Instead he bounced the puck off of his teammate guarding Yashin and redirected it into the back of his own net. When the period had ended the Islanders were assured a point when only 10 minutes earlier it was looking like a sure loss. - The overtime was pretty exciting. The Islander had two good chances, one of quality when Isbister was almost able to chip the puck by Cechmanek. But the puck was too far ahead of his stick. Shawn Bates later skated down the right side of the ice and blasted a shot wide of the net. Then it was Snow's turn to continue his outstanding goaltending. He made 38 saves on 41 Flyers shots in the game. Three of the shots were point blank in the overtime session. One of the shots was on practically a two on one led by puckhandler Mark Recchi. He tried to roof the puck over Snow's pad but Snow was there to stone him and make the save. The Islanders capped off a good comeback on the road and gained their 3rd point of the season. They now have a modest two game undefeated streak. Fight Card: Eric Cairns vs. Todd Fedoruk. Happened in the closing minutes of the first period. Cairns tried to throw some punches but Fedoruk was in too close. It's kind of hard to give Fedoruk the overall edge in the fight unless you count take downs. Cairns landed on his back pretty hard. But in all it really wasn't much of a fight. Commentary: Fantastic comeback. The Islanders got a point on the road in a tough building, even if they have had good success there in recent past. The Islanders have to continue to at least keep up with the pack and remain .500 until Michael Peca comes back. Unless they can prove that they can be just as good without Peca. In that case they will be in an even better situation when he comes back. I hate to pick on the guy, but Arron Asham continues to back bad decisions on the ice in each game for the Isles. Tonight he made a mistake in all three periods, including a stupid blind drop pass to nobody that resulted in the puck going back the other way. He did get an important assist on Bates shorthanded goal though. Brad Isbister continues to impress with his new attitude and determination this season. He may not have directly put the game tying goal into the net but he did everything he is expected to do to lead to the puck ending up into the net. And that's all that is important. He must continue to use his power moves to the net no matter what happens in every game and not get discouraged when they don't work all the time. They will work more than not in the long run. injury report: Michael Peca reportedly looks great in practice. He is playing pick up games with the other injured players, Radek Martinek for one, and the coaching staff including Laviolette. Could Peca make it back before the proposed December date? Perhaps the end of November. You never know. Though the doctors may have a say in the end and demand he waits until December to make sure the leg is strong enough. Martinek could make it back early, either sometime next week or optimistically in Atlanta Saturday night. Steve Webb is resting his ailing back. Godard's NHL debut: The Islanders were prepared to keep the same lineup that they used in the win over Nashville, including youngsters Raffi Torres and Justin Mapletoft. Apparently at sometimes during the day the Isles decided they would need some more toughness and recalled Eric Godard from Bridgeport to make his NHL debut. The Islanders have a lot more talented rookies vying for spots on the NHL team this season than they did last year. With Godard in that meant Mapletoft had to sit. I was personally upset over the move because I was so impressed with Mapletoft's play against Nashville, but I understood the move. Hopefully Mapletoft will find his way back into the lineup against Atlanta. The Thrashers play in Tampa Bay Friday night. The Islanders will travel tomorrow and will be waiting for Atlanta's return. Report Card: Brad Isbister: Scored the game tying goal with 2:08 remaining after skating the length of the ice. Oleg Kvasha: Didn't have any shots in the game but played respectably on the top line tonight and killing penalties. Alexei Yashin: One shot on goal and a bit of a quiet night overall. Did play a hand on the game tying goal. Shawn Bates: Had his best game of the season so far after being a possible question mark to play after wrenching his back against Nashville. Scored shorthanded. He finished second on the team last year with 5 shorties. Added an assist on Parrish's goal for two points in the game. He leads the team in scoring with 1-3-4 in 4 games. Mark Parrish: Got the comback rolling with a nice whip shot on Cechmanek that goal scorers have a knack for making. Raffi Torres: Recorded one assist in 14 games last season. Has 2 assists in two games so far this season. Once again did not seem out of place on the second line and contributed in all aspects of the game, offensively and physically. Dave Scatchard: A quiet game. Did not get a whole lot of penalty killing time tonight as he usually does. Arron Asham: Struggled bigtime once again. Though he got the primary assist on Bates shorty. Jason Wiemer: Once again he was pretty nonexistent, but played well defensively. Jason Blake: Not as much icetime as against Nashville but played well always utilizing his speed. Claude Lapointe: Once again played well defensively. Eric Godard: Came of the bench in his NHL debut and unfortunately missed his check on the Fedoruk goal. He got a good amount of icetime in the first period but sparce the rest of the way because of penalties and a close game in the third. Godard, known for his bruising fists, tried to get something going with Flyer tough guy Donald Brashear a couple of times but Brashear decided not to go early on and when the Flyers led 3-1. Defense: Roman Hamrlik: Had an OK game but seems to run out of Breath often after plays. Doesn't seem to have to ability to log large amounts of icetime like Aucoin does. Adrian Aucoin: Probably played close to 40 minutes again, including an astounding 12 minutes in the second period. Eric Cairns: got into a fight with Fedoruk late in the first period that was noneventful. Kenny Jonsson: Played well in his own end. Ray Schultz: Tried to pinch in the offensive zone during the first period and got pushed off the puck into the boards by a Flyer. Schultz did not see any ice for the rest of the game. Mattias Timander: Played well. But sometimes he is not very noticeable. Other times he is. Definitely not big on interviews as he gave a lot of short answers to Stan Fischler during the first intermission. Goal: Garth Snow: what can you say but he had a fantastic game. If the Isles did not take all those penalties in the second period which led to the Flyers second and third goals, Snow's performance would have backstopped the Isles to a victory. Coach Laviolette said he plans on using Garth more this season than last. Snow seems even more focused this year. The coach considers him a 1a in goal. Coach: Does Lavvy have a thing for dark suits? He called a timeout late in the second when the Isles had their first powerplay after taking six penalties of their own.
Flyers Tie Islanders 3-3
Lineups: ISLANDERS DEFENSE GOALTENDERS FLYERS DEFENSE GOALTENDERS
Power-play Conversions:
NYI - 0 of 3, PHI - 1 of 8.
IslesInfo Pregame Preview Preview You might remember this photo(removed) from a game in Philly last season. It took place right before the Olympic break, and was one of the most memorable games of the 2001-02 season. Garth Snow posted a 1-0 shutout and Michael Peca scored shorthanded in OT. Oct 17: Once again the Isles will turn to Garth Snow in net tonight when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers. Snow, who usually gets the nod when visiting his old team, will make his first start of the season. Of course, one thing different from that game on February 12th last season is captain Peca won't be in the lineup as he still rehabs his healing knee. The Islanders are coming off their first win of the season, an exciting 4-3 overtime win at home over the Nashville Predators. The Islanders, 1-2-0-0, know that they have to beat the Flyers if they are going to challenge for first place in the division and first place in the conference. The Flyers have gotten off to a great start going 2-0-1-0. They won Tuesday night 6-2 over the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal. John Leclair may be on the verge of having a comeback season as he netted 4 goals in the win. Mark Recchi is always a tough player to defend against and has been getting his share of goals this season as well. The Islanders need another solid effort from their top line of Alexei Yashin, Brad Isbister and Oleg Kvasha. Jason Wiemer needs to get more involved as does Shawn Bates. It will be interesting to see if Raffi Torres and Justin Mapletoft can continue to inject some life into the Isles especially on the road. - The Islanders swept all three games at First Union Arena last season and are hoping they can continue the trend in 2002-03. It will be tough because tonight is the Flyers home opener. The Islanders are outshooting their opponents practically two to one so far this season. It will be interesting to see if the Isles can keep that up. The defense will have to be on their toes against the likes of Leclair, Recchi, Jeremy Roenick and Simon Gagne. The Isles went 1-1 against Philly in the preseason. This could be a very scrappy game with guys like Wiemer, Eric Cairns, Arron Asham and Ray Schultz in there for the Isles. Donald Brashear and Todd Fedoruk will be ready for the Flyers. Injury Update: Steve Webb, sore back, has not made the road trip with the Islanders for games against Philly and Atlanta on Saturday. Defenseman Radek Martinek has returned early to practice and it is expected he could make a quicker return to game action, possibly even Saturday's game against Atlanta. Shawn Bates wrenched his back and missed some ice time between the second and third periods Tuesday night. He didn't practice Wednesday but is expected to be in the lineup Thursday night.
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Lets Go Isles! |
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1998-2003 Tom Mascioli
