Isles Storm Back To Tame Wild

 

Cal Clutterbuck and your New York Islanders will travel to Minnesota face Nino Niederreiter and the Wild.  John Tavares is back in the line up while Josh Bailey (Upper Body) , Michael Grabner (illness) and Matt Carkner (scratch) are out.  The need for points is as pressing is always as is the need for secondary scoring team defense and strong goaltending.  What else is new?

 

Forwards:  Vanek-Tavares-Okposo, Regin-Nielsen-Clutterbuck, Nelson-Strome-McDonald, Martin-Cizikas-Boulton.

Defensive Pairings:  de Haan-Hamonic, MacDonald-Hickey, Strait-Ness.

Kevin Poulin will be in net tonight with Evgeni Nabokov on the bench.

 

What's worse than an MSG produced piece on how much Thomas Vanek loves Minnesota? How about running that very same feature in the same season the Islanders are trying to re-sign Vanek before he becomes a free agent?  How about when Garth Snow appears in the pre-game saying his coaching staff is doing, "an incredible job." 

 

Your New York Islanders came out flat and uninspired to start the game.  Kevin Poulin did well in the first to keep the Isles in it.  The Wild scored once in the first and twice in the second for a 3-0 lead, including a goal and assist from Nino Niederreiter just to make it sting a little more.  John Tavares scores at the midway point of the second period to get New York on the board and get something started for his team.  The Isles turned up their intensity a bit and worked harder in both zones.  Thomas Hickey's hard work got things started and Cal Clutterbuck scored (Hickey & Nelson) to get the Isles within one, 3-2 Minnesota as the period ended. 

Isles look tired in the third period and Capuano makes good use of a time out and it pays off.  Thomas Hickey continues to have a strong effort tonight and finds the back of the net (McDonald & Strome) to tie the game at 3-3 in the third period.  What a great play by Strome to see that unfolding. With just under 8:00 remaining in the third period, Kyle Okposo (Hickey & McDonald) puts it by Josh Harding to give the Isles a 4-3 lead in the game.  Shortly after, Poulin makes a pair initial saves, but Minnesota ties it at 4-4.  Seconds after that, Kyle Okposo scores again (27 seconds apart from Hickey & Strait) before the last Minnesota goal could even be announced.  Wow, what an exchange.  de Haan gives the Wild a PP chance on a weak call late in the period but Kevin Poulin (33/37 with an .892Sv%) and the Isles PK (perfect 4/4 in the game) with an awesome effort to keep the puck out of the net.  Isles win 5-4 despite being out shot 37-31. An alarming stat that can not continue was seeing the Isles lose in face offs by a 41-21 margin.

 

The Isles storm back in Minnesota and score 5 goals to win 5-4.  Per Eric Hornick, "Last time Isles rallied from 3+goal deficit to win I didn't have kids (and my older son is a HS Senior) 3/22/94 vs Tampa (trailed 4-0)."  In a game with that would see Cal Clutterbuck and Nino Niederreiter go head to head, the Islanders came back from a terrible start and followed John Tavares, the unrelenting Kyle Okposo and fought back until they did enough to win the game.  The top guys played like top guys and the defense woke up and played well as a unit, while contributing to the offensive output.  The younger guys like Strome, Nelson, de Haan and Aaron Ness had a mostly strong effort.  Most of the pieces are in place, the rest will take some more time.  For what its worth, you have to love what you saw tonight.

 

Kyle Okposo, ""Third periods have been our Achilles heel all year. We've really wanted to change that and tonight we got the job done."

 

 

 

 

 

Isles Notes:

 

Per Eric Hornick, "Hickey is 1st Isles D-men with at least 3 pts and +4 since Barry Richter (Yes that Barry Richter) 1-26-99 vs Boston."

It is always a privilege to hear Mr. Jiggs McDonald call an Islanders game.  Thank you Sir.