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Tonight is the rematch between your New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens.  The Isles are very alive in the playoff race and have put some good games together recently.  Tonight is another test at home against a good team on a winning streak.  Who will bring what is needed to win?

Forwards:  Moulson-Tavares-Boyes, Bailey-Nielsen-Okposo, Grabner-Reasoner-Ullstrom, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

Defensive Pairings:  MacDonald-Hamonic, Finley-Streit, Hickey-Martinek.

Evgeni Nabokov is in net with Kevin Polin backing up.

In the first period, the NVMC is mostly empty to start the game, with 9,498 fans in attendence.  The Isles went down 1-0 because the Canadiens controlled play for much of the period.  The Isles were not able to generate much at all in the way of offensive pressure.  Per Arthur Staple, "Casey Cizikas wakes up the Isles portion of the crowd by knocking Alex Galchenyuk fully into the Isles bench. Cleanly."

Will the second period be any different.  Matt Moulson (Streit and Nielsen) evens the game at 1-1 less than two minutes in.  Around the half way point of the period, Matt Martin (Boyes and Tavares) and Michael Grabner (Hickey and McDonald) score  about :40 seconds apart, bringing the Isles lead to 3-1.  Montreal scores late in the period to make the score 3-2.

Montreal scores early in the period to tie the game at 3-3.  Less than two minutes later, Radek Martinek (Okposo and Hickey) regains the lead for New York, 4-3.  Its Okposo's 100th career assist.  John Tavares scores (Boyes) to make it 5-3.  With time winding down, Colin McDonald scores the empty net goal to seal the deal.  Isles beat the Canadiens AT HOME 6-3.  Montreal ended up outshooting the Isles 32-24 in the game.  Credit Evgeni Nabokov for yet another stabilizing night in net going 29 for 32 and a .906 Sv%.

Matt Martin and the Isles amped up their physical pressence in the game and really took the play away from Montreal.  A necessary event for this team to win.  Their speed will not always be enough.  Rob McGowan sums it up, " Cizikas, Martin & McDonald have really emerged as a great fourth line for the Isles. All are physical and can contribute on the scoresheet."  At least we can give credit to Capuano for this.  D's, Finley and especially Hickey have both come on in their own way for New York.  Credit Garth Snow. 

I know there is a lot of work to do and the team needs to play consistently.  The teams goals against needs to be better (2nd worst in NHL) and that is an overall defensive improvement from the net, outward.  The stronger team play keeps coming in bunches and with smaller gaps in between, so at least give the guys on the team that.  Despite coming out flat and making some mistakes, the Isles turned this into a good game.  The Isles were able to come together and regroup from down a goal, and rebound to control play for a majority of the time remaining.  They stopped an 8-0-3 run by the Canadiens with the win at home tonight. 



Give it to much maligned signing, Radek Martinek for coming off the bench and delivering well defensively and adding a veteran experience for the Isles, including the winning score.  The Isles are now 2 pts out of a playoff spot with the Rangers winning tonight.  They will face those same Rangers at home on Thursday. 

Martin on the win: "It's huge. We wanted to make sure we came and played a good hockey game...we couldn't afford to drop another one.  "We responded well. Everyone played gritty, everyone played tough. Rangers game might be more physical but that's fun hockey."

Statement time.

Isles Notes:

Per Arthur Staple, Visnovsky apparently headed back to Slovakia to attend to a family tragedy. Scheduled to be back by the weekend.  Visnovsky's personal issue is nothing to do with his son's health.

Per Roman Jedlicka, "Lubo Visnovsky is in Slovakia for "personal"reasons, not "family" reasons. his good friend's 13yr old son passed away in helicopter."

Per NHLhistorygirl, On this date in 1985, Isles Mike Bossy became the first NHL player to score 50 goals in eight consecutive seasons.

On this date in 2007, Rick DiPietro sets a career-high and Isles franchise record by making 56 saves in a game.