Ranger Danger

Tonight, your New York Islanders will face the rival New York Rangers at MSG for the first of three meetings in the month of January.  The Islanders have climbed to within 5 points of a playoff spot, so a win tonight would be equal to 4 points in the playoff race.  Cam Talbot will be in net for the Rangers, with Lundqvist out due to illness.

Forwards:  Vanek-Tavares-Okposo, Regin-Nielsen-Bailey, Grabner-Nelson-Clutterbuck, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

D-Pairings:  Strait-MacDonald; de Haan-Donovan; Hickey-Martinek.

Kevin Poulin will get the start in net with Anders Nilsson backing up.

 

The Rangers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first minute of the game and again at the midway point for a 2-0 lead.  The Isles are moving the puck well, and taking the play to the Rangers, but are very shaky on the defensive side of the play.  Matt Martin scores (Tavares & Okposo) late in the period to  bring the Isles within a goal, 2-1 the score.  The Islanders continue to play hard, but just need to focus on finishing and to stop giving these officials the chances to make bad calls against them when they are trying to get back into the game.  Rangers score again off another weak roughing call against Martin, 3-1 Rangers.

 

Thomas Hickey (Okposo & Vanek) converts some nice passing into a 3-2 game.  Just three minutes later, Colin McDonald is relentless with a lose puck in front of the net, gets his own rebound and ties the game at 3-3.  Kevin Poulin with some big saves late in the second to preserve the tie thus far.  Isles are starting to outwork and frustrate Rangers on both ends of the ice.  Their defensive play is better in the third and helping Poulin do his job.  With about 5:00 remaining, Thomas Vanek slides it around Talbot for a PPG off a beautiful passing play from John Tavares and Frans Nielsen, 4-3 Islanders.  In the closing minutes with the Rangers net empty, Frans Nielsen scores the ENG to make the final score, 5-3 Islanders.  The Isles out shot the Rangers 37-33 and went 1/5 on the PP.

 

The Islanders really made a statement tonight.  They came back once again from a two goal deficit and kept fighting until the go ahead goal was scored late in the third at MSG.  In the final five minutes, they kept a desperate Ranger team at bay and scored the empty net goal to seal the win on the road, grab 2 points and take two away from the Rangers.

 

The first line was awesome, but tonight was another great team effort.  I loved seeing guys like Martin, Hickey & McDonald score for the Islanders along with Vanek and Nielsen lead by example.  Calvin de Haan's hockey sense continues to impress and Casey Cizikas is an important member of this team.  Watching the defense tighten up and recover again to support Kevin Poulin (30 for 33 and a .909Sv%) was another good sign.  Kevin Poulin (and Nilsson to a lesser extent) deserve a lot of credit for coming into goal for the Isles during a crucial time in the season.  The teams main focus is to recover points and gain in the standings, and both goaltenders are playing well enough for the team to find a way to win.  Despite being younger guys with limited experience, they have played pretty well when they have had to do so.  The team continues to slowly, and painfully get closer to consistency, which is good.  Just very slowly.