Eastern Quarter Finals, Game 5 - Islanders vs. Pittsburgh
Game 5 means that the Isles or Pens will have a 3-2 series lead tonight. Will Vokoun make a difference? With Nabokov stand tall? We shall see what will become of your New York Islanders.
Forwards: Bailey-Tavares-Boyes, Moulson-Nielsen-Okposo, Grabner-Aucoin-McDonald, Joensuu-Cizikas-Martin
Defensive Pairings: Strait-Hamonic, Visnovsky-Hickey, Streit-Martinek
Evgeni Nabokov is in net with Kevin Poulin on the bench.
The first period starts with some grit. Both teams exchanging pleasentries while Cizikas has the crowd and Pens players focused on him at all times. Strait called for a weak interference call. Love Joensuu's edge, hes a big forward with a meanstreak who can score. Isles PK up to the task. Third line stirring things up early. Isles to PP. Kyle Okposo is fired up, splits 4 Pens, so close. (credit: @schultz88) PP ends. Evgeni Nabokov looking good, especially in close. Forcing Pens to chip and chase, playing physical and getting shots on net. Crowd is quiet. A good road period. Isles outshot Pens 14-7, but need to focus on winning faceoffs and jumping on Vokouns rebounds.
Nabokov comes up big to start the second period. Penguins generating more chances. Letang hits Kennedy breaking to a 1 on 1. Mistake costs Isles a 1-0 lead, Pens. Murray gets a lucky bounce on Nabokov who lets in a bad goal, 2-0. 2 goals in 1:22. Could be a turning point for the game. The silent crowd comes to life in Pittsburgh. Pens having neutral zone success in the second, being able to pass or carry in and set up offensively. Pens continue to move puck, Crosby blows by Neilsen, Visnovsky and Hickey for the score, 3-0 Pens. Per Eric Hornick, 4th time in the series, (all but game 4) that the pens have scored 3 goals in a period. Isles are off their game and letting Pens dictate play. Kunitz runs through Nabokov's arm as he was freezing puck and he looks to be shaken up. No call, Nabby recovers, says he is ok. Crosby looks hurt by something again, this time off a Martinek shot and goes into locker room, then back to bench. He cant make up his mind how injured he is or is not. Pittsburgh has the edge in shots 18-11, teams are even after two periods, 25-25.
Crosby returns to start the third period. Isles showing some fight, but need much more. Pens call team timeout. I have got to say, scratching Carkner for Hickey hasn't worked. I like Hickey, but you cant argue that Carkner wasn't at least a thorn in the side of the Penguins offense. Per Arthur Staple, Tavares is now between Grabner and McDonald. Frans Neilsen is not on the bench. (Neilsen UPDATE: Lower Body Injury, Day to day) Martin goes to the box on a terrible call, and Crosby hits Letang for the score, 4-0 Pens. Poulin suits up and Nabokov is benched after going 23-27 with an .852Sv%. Vokoun hasn't even really been tested and certainly not by the multiple rebounds he has surrendered. Hickey will go to the box and the Pens will finish the game on a PP, Isles kill penalty. Kevin Poulin will finish the game by stopping all 4 shots he faced. Shots on net were even at 6-6 and 31-31 in the game. Penguins shut out the Islanders 4-0 and take a 3-2 series lead.
Recap:
The first period aside, the Isles fell away from their game plan and were unable to do the things that threw Pittsburgh off in previous games. Because of this, their defensive game wansn't there and they were unable to click offensively. Vokoun wasn't really challenged tonight and the game spiraled out of control from there. Carkner and MacDonald were out, Martinek and Hickey were in. While Martinek played well in place for MacDonald, looks like Carkner brings an element of grit that Hickeys developing skill level couldn't compensate for. He was obviously missed. The second and third goals were back breakers and should never have been allowed to occur.
Nabokov has looked more shaky than steady in the playoffs thus far. I was really rooting for him to come up big and steal the game tonight, but he waffled around good, never looked settled and then let in a couple of soft goals. His defense was no bargin for him in the second period, but at his level of play, we need more if the Isles are making it out of the first round. I think the coaches can watch him and talk to him over the next couple of days to evaluate who plays on Saturday, but I am not confident he can bounce back.
I am a big fan of Kevin Poulin and Anders Nilsson. They both have big upside and can be real NHL goaltenders, but I am not sure with the teams progress, that they can be seen as playoff ready, especially to step on now. The minimal experience Poulin has gotten in game 1 and 5 should help him to understand the compete level necessary for an NHL goaltender in these playoffs, but not sure how much. Its a lot of pressure.
Do you tap Strome or Brock Nelson to play in game 6? Do you bring Carkner back in? Nabokov or Poulin? Plenty of questions for the coaching staff for game 6. I think too many changes were made for this game, it obviously affected the on ice product. A constant complaint I have for Capuano is he misses with line ups that win when he doesn't have to do so. Its the inconsistency that irks me. It may have factored into this game, but everything seemed to misfire in the second period. A 4-0 drumming after the game 1 shut out fiasco is a hard pill to swallow again.
Lets chalk it up as another experience and look towards Saturday. The Isles are not done here by any stretch, but they took some lumps. Its time to man up, play physical and show the world what they are made of again. They have to win on Saturday to even have a chance on Sunday, if it got that far. So take Coach Al Arbors advice and try to win one shift at a time. I really dislike the Pengwhines and get sick losing to them, but they have talent and I am still very proud of what my New York Islanders team has done this season, and I will cheer them on until their season is over.
Regroup, focus and beLIeve.
Grail Knight of the game is a new category for KoC that awards a player for his standout performance that kept his team in the game, helped them win or just never surrendered.
Grail Knight for Game 5: Casey Cizikas only has one speed and despite the result of the game, Cizikas kept checking, hitting and going after the puck.
#beLIeve #STRONGisland
Isles Notes:
**Game 6 at the NVMC is Saturday @ 7pm.**
The Islanders have 14G in the last 3 games. Last time they had 14G in 3-game span in playoffs were games 5-7 when they knocked out Penguins in '93.
Sold out NVMC equals Big Bucks for County.
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