Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Islanders Endure Oilers


Your New York Islanders got their 17th road win last night in Buffalo to tie them for the best road record in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks.  Tonight, they will face the Edmonton Oilers at the NVMC without the services of  Kyle Okposo, Cal Clutterbuck, Michael Grabner & Calvin de Haan who are all out due to injury.  Colin McDonald & Harry Zolnierczyk will remain in the line up to try and extend the Oilers Island losing streak to 8 games for their final visit to the Coliseum.  Even though Edmonton is struggling, the Isles better be ready to play at a high level because the visitors will be playing with something to prove.


Forwards:  Lee-Tavares-Bailey, Grabovski-Nielsen-Strome, Zolnierczyk-Nelson-Kulemin, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

Defensive Pairings:  Leddy-Boychuk, Strait-Hamonic, Hickey-Visnovsky.

Jaroslav Halak is in net with Chad Johnson on the bench.


In the first period, The Isles came out with some jump and dominated time of possession & shots on net, but Fasth is keeping his team in it.  Anders Lee gets called for a suspect hooking call & Hamilton makes it a 1-0 game for the Oilers after beating Halak on a soft goal.  The Isles come close off an Anders Lee tuck attempt, but fail to score on their first PP chance of the game.  Colin McDonald (Martin & Hamonic) finds a way & puts in his second goal in as many nights for the Islanders, evening the score at 1-1.   Islanders start strong, then struggle to find their rhythm though the rest of first period.  They finish the period with an 11-8 edge in shots.


The Islanders come out strong again, but can’t convert on some quality scoring chances.  A much better effort is needed by the Islanders to close out “weaker” teams earlier in the game.  To make it worse, they seem unable to jump on numerous rebounds given up by Fasth.  Matt Martin with a nice feed to John Tavares who can’t convert, but Josh Bailey (Hickey & Lee) deflects a Thomas Hickey shot from the blue line, 2-1 Islanders.  Officials missing several would be penalties that could be called on the Oilers.  Hendricks goes after John Tavares, Josh Bailey goes back at him, standing up for the captain.  Isles to the PK.  Strait plays way too deep and Lander ties the game at 2-2 with a PPG late in the period.  PK has been awful again and is a real problem for this team.  Shots are 23-21 after 2.
 

Isles come up empty with 49 seconds on PP time to start the period and fall behind in shots 8-0 by the midpoint of the period and are playing a weak defensive game.  Colin McDonald repeatedly works the puck to Casey Cizikas who puts a one timer past Fasth for a 3-2 Isles lead with 5 minutes remaining in the game.  Empty net for the Oilers in the final minute.  Jaro Halak (34/36 with a .944Sv%) makes a huge save with time running down to preserve the lead and secure the 3-2 win.  Edmonton able to finish with a 36-28 advantage in shots, including a 15-5 edge in the third period.  Isles were 37-25 in face-offs.


Colin McDonald, Casey Cizikas & Thomas Hickey were named the 3 stars of the game.
 

The Isles started the first two periods with energy, but trailed off against another inferior team tonight.  It is a huge point of concern for the Islanders who need to finish the season well to secure a solid playoff position.  Aside from the play of Thomas Hickey, the PP was weak (0/2), the defense was soft for most of the game and the PK (1/3) was uninspired.  But there were some positives.  Anders Lee had another strong game.  Colin McDonald continues to inspire the team with his hard-nosed, relentless work ethic over the last couple of games.  The fourth line was definitely a bright spot tonight.  Both Matt Martin & Casey Cizikas grind the opposition until the brink of frustration.  It was a great comeback win & this team is thick with character, but their depth will be tested throughout the remainder of the season.  Good thing the Isles are 14-5-0 when John Tavares is kept off the score sheet.  It’s going to be hard to send Colin McDonald back to Bridgeport if he keeps this up.  Good for him.


Another big thing to look forward to is that 18 of the final 29 games are at home where the Isles are 18-6-0.  Isles are in 1st place with 71 pts.  They will test that stat again on Thursday against Toronto.




Isles Notes:


Former Islander goaltender, Evgeni Nabokov has been traded back to San Jose from the TBL for purposes of retiring as a Shark.
 
 
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Thanks to Michael Alexy (@MichaelAlexy) for the cool KoC graphics!
 
 
 
 

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