On the last night of 2013, Your New York
Islanders will travel to TD Gardens in Boston and face the Bruins. We shall see if the Isles can ride the wave
of momentum after their thrilling come from behind win against Minnesota. Zedeno Chara is back in the line up for
Boston while Michael Grabner & Matt Carkner are back in for Boulton &
Ness. Josh Bailey is still day to day
with an upper body injury.
Forwards:
Vanek-Tavares-Okposo,
Grabner-Nielsen-Clutterbuck, Nelson-Strome-McDonald, Regin-Cizikas-Martin.
D-Pairings: MacDonald-Hickey, de Haan-Hamonic,
Strait-Carkner.
Evgeni Nabokov is
net with Kevin Poulin on the bench.
The Islanders come
out slow once again and immediately find them selves trying to catch up and
protect the net in their own end. Boston
has dictated the pace in the first period, But credit Nabokov for his work thus
far. Isles continue to struggle and
Boston makes it 1-0 as Cizikas makes a bad clear and Carkner is seemingly unable
to move bodies from in front of the net.
To make it worse, the Isles get a bad penalty call, but are successful
on the PK. As the Islanders pressure
Boston in their own zone, the puck ends up behind Rask from a Clutterbuck
shot. After the review, the call is no
goal. It looks like the puck crossed
the goal line to me, but the call says otherwise. Its hard to complain about calls, but it seems to me that each
game is an uphill battle. You tell me.
(@BruinsDaily)
Thomas Hickey, Cal
Clutterbuck and Colin McDonald are really working hard tonight and their play
is infectious. PP for the Isles. Kyle Okposo takes the puck off the boards to
John Tavares and Frans Nielsen puts a quick wrist shot by Rask tying the score
at 1-1, PPG. de Haan gets called for a
cross check and Boston makes them pay, 2-1 Boston. Just :25 seconds later, Boston scores again and makes it 3-1 off
a Hickey turn over to Chara. The
Islanders get refocused after a Boston Bruins time out is called. They seem more active and aggressive in the
offensive zone with strong fore checking, creates a PP opportunity. Isles cash in as Frans Nielsen scores (Vanek
& Taveres) to get closer to evening the score, 3-2 Boston.
Lucic crosschecks McDonald immediately from the face off. The Isles went right back to a PP chance,
but failed to score this time. Rask
takes a delay of game penalty with close to a minute remaining and Kyle Okposo
scores a PPG with 2.6 seconds left on the clock, game tied at 3-3 at the end of
two.
John Tavares scores 5
seconds into the third period to give the Islanders a 4-3 lead to start the
third period. Both teams have found
another gear and are testing each other regularly. Isles really starting to get under Bostons skin, especially Colin
McDonald. Marchand goes after Strome,
Isles to the PP. John Tavares scores
PPG! 5-3 Islanders. Isles to the PK,
Grabner gets a short handed break away and goes wide. Lucic "boards" Hamonic and gets 4:00
(boarding & unsportsmanlike conduct) and a 10 minute game misconduct. Jiggs McDonald asks Butch Goring, "What
in the world has happened to respect for your opponent in this sport?" Isles will get almost 3:30 that could
technically allow them to finish the game on the PP after some 4 on 4. The Isles win the game 5-3, but get outshot
38-31, but going 4/8 on the PP against a team like Boston. Not too shabby. Evgeni Nabokov was strong, especially late going 35/38 with a
.932Sv%. I loved the aggressive fore
and back checking and the gritty play by McDonald and Clutterbuck who just
keeps getting better and better.
John Kreiser said it
well, "Happy new year for Isles, who rally from 3-1 down for 5-3 win at
Boston. 6-0-1 in last 7 games on Dec. 31 - last loss was in '98, 1-0 at CHI." A nice display of resiliance lately,
especially over the last two games, coming back from behind and really turning
the game back at their opponent. John
Tavares with 44 pts after a (2 & 2) 4 pt night. Kyle Okposo with 40 points, 3 pts tonight. Frans Nielsen with 32 points had 2 goals, Andrew
MacDonald & Thomas Vanek with 22 points had 2 assists and Thomas Hickey had
an assist on the night. Both the PP and
PK have been a big reason for the Isles success in recent games, winning the
last 4 on the road and 5-3-2 in their last 10 games. The Isles improve to 13-21-7 with 33 pts.
Isles Notes:
I will be AFK for the
games against Chicago on Thursday, 1/2 @ 7 pm & Carolina on Saturday, 1/4 @
7 pm. I will try and rejoin the hockey
universe on Monday against Dallas @ 7 pm or Tuesday vs. Toronto @ 7 pm with a
recap and current game coverage.
Happy New Year Everyone.
Thanks for checking out
Knight of Cups for your New York Islanders News.
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