Jaroslav Halak & Nick Leddy will return
to the lineup tonight as your New York Islanders visit the New Jersey Devils
for their final meeting of the season.
The Isles will be looking to end their 4 game losing streak and finish a
season sweep of the Devils to close ground on the Rangers, who now hold a 5
point lead in the division. Tonight is a
must win for New York who will face Minnesota, LA, Anaheim & Detroit next
week. Calvin de Haan is the healthy
scratch for Leddy’s return.
Bailey-Tavares-Okposo,
Lee-Nelson-Strome, Kulemin-Nielsen-Kennedy, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.
Leddy-Boychuk,
Hickey-Hamonic, Strait-Donovan.
Jaro Halak is in net with Michal Neuvirth
backing up.
In the first period, the Isles come out with
their expended jump and Halak standing tall from the start. Nikolay Kulemin forces a turnover of Gelinas
and Ryan Strome (Kulemin) gets his first goal in 8 games (15th of
ssn) giving the Isles a 1-0 lead. Yes! Chants
rain down at the rock. The Isles look
refreshed and the Devils have resorted to their smothering trap style of play. Jaroslav Halak making his presence felt with
a few big saves late in the period to preserve the lead and the kid line
looking good. Strome & Kulemin
making things happen throughout the period.
Isles hold a 13-9 shots advantage.
The Devils and Islanders exchange shots of
the post to start the second period. By
the middle of the period, Halak is putting on a clinic with a myriad of huge
saves. Now I am all about the clinic Halak is putting on, but
the Isles need to score some goals here and soon. Devils have a pretty good
goalie as well in Schneider. Isles PK
with a big kill on Hamonic’s Hook on Zubrus.
Devils with an 11-10 edge in the period, Isles hold a 21-10 advantage
after 2.
After a back and forth start to the third
period, Jaro makes two huge saves off a Devils 2 on 1 chance to preserve the
lead. Casey Cizikas with an awesome feed and Matt Martin goes
down hard after being interfered with by Gionta as he went for the shot. Skates
off to the bench in obvious pain. Isles
generate good pressure on the PP and Travis Hamonic (Strome & Nelson) converts
(5th of ssn) off a nice Ryan Strome feed as it expires, 2-0
Islanders. Visiting fans Yes! Chant echoes
through the sold out arena again. Devils call Schneider to the bench with 2:39
remaining. Isles call a timeout with
49.6 seconds remaining, Kyle Okposo (Tavares) scores the ENG, 3-0 Isles. John Tavares now tied (Ovechkin) for league
lead in points with 73. Shots were 9-6 Isles in the third and 30-26 in the
game. Isles PP was 0/1 and their PK,
1/1. Isles sweep Devils in season series.
The Islanders had their
struggles tonight, but they worked hard and found a way to convert that into a
productive scoring effort. They were good enough on defense to help secure the
shutout for their goaltender who played out of his mind tonight after returning
from injury. Jaro Halak (26 saves) got
his 5th shutout and franchise leading 35th win of the
ssn, was the primary reason for the Isles win tonight. Halak has moved into a third place tie for
wins among NHL goaltenders. Ryan Strome
was awesome throughout the game and had 2 pts on the night. Both were named stars of the game and deservedly
so. Nikolay Kulemin has been a consistent, but quiet force for the Isles as well. Nick Leddy was quietly effective for
the Isles after missing the last 4 games.
It should be noted that Matt Donovan & Brian Strait played a good
game tonight as well.
This was a big win, ended
the skid and got the Isles going in the right direction heading into a tough
week ahead. The Isles should only get
better as players return to the lineup and they are able to rest up and retool
their game at 44-25-4 with 92 pts.
Per Rich DeKorte, “Strome:
"We knew to get off this losing skid it was gonna be kind of a greasy
game. We battled pretty hard I thought."
Minnesota comes to the
NVMC on Tuesday.
Isles Notes:
Michal Neuvirth's new Isles mask.
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