Isles Fall To Boston, Then Best St. Louis

Your New York Islanders split their weekend matchups, losing on Friday to the Boston Bruins and besting the St. Louis Blues in overtime on Saturday.

After surrendering the first goal on Friday night, the Isles improved play helped them to a 2-1 lead in the first period on goals by Josh Bailey PPG (Tavares & Strome) and Casey Cizikas (Boychuk & Martin).  Boston answered New York’s renewed efforts with some effort of their own and scored 4 unanswered goals through the next two periods, capturing a 5-2 lead.  The Isles Thomas Hickey would add another goal in the final minutes of the third, but they would lose the game 5-3. 

New York went 1 of 2 on the PP and 3/3 on the PK.  Jaro Halak (2-1-0) finished with 21 saves on 25 shots with an .840Sv%.  The Islanders 4 game winning streak ended with the loss in a game they spent trying to recapture the edge they showed in the opening period. But they were outplayed by their opponents and made mistakes for most of the game, ultimately coming up short and were disappointed in the loss.  Tavares – “We got away from our game and we tried to make too many pretty plays. We didn’t win enough battles and that’s not who we are.”

Casey Cizikas was named 3rd star of the game.

The Isles would look to get back to their winning ways the next night in St. Louis.  Kyle Okposo PPG (Leddy & Nielsen) & John Tavares (Kulemin & Bailey) got the Isles a 2-0 lead going into the third period.  The blues would tie the game at 2-2 and ultimately force O.T., but Mikhail Grabovski (Nielsen) scored at the 4:00 mark of the extra session to give New York a 3-2 win.  On the winning play, Mikhail Grabovski passed it to Frans Nielsen, who then fed the puck back to Grabovski on a beautiful cross crease pass.  Grabovski tapped it in with two St. Louis players right on top of him in the paint.  Probably one of the most exciting goals this season and it was Grabo’s first goal of the season.

Special teams saw the Isles go 1/3 on the PP and 5/5 on the PK.  Thomas Greiss (2-0-1 on Ssn) had another strong effort on the night, making 38 saves on 40 shots with a.950Sv%.  To me, he was the story of the game and interestingly enough, has faced 40 shots in each of his wins this season.  John Tavares has extended his scoring streak to 6 games.

Mikhail Grabovski & John Tavares were named 1^st & 3^rd stars of the game.

The Isles sit 3rd in the Metro at 11 pts, just behind the Rangers and Capitals with 12 points.  


They have Calgary & Carolina at home on Monday and Thursday @ 7pm and a Halloween matinee in New Jersey against the Devils @ 1pm on Saturday. 

Isles Notes:

Anthony Beauvillier agrees to terms on three-year entry level contract.

Sound Tigers Notes:

The BST have loaned Parker Milner, Loic Leduc & Carter Verhaeghe to the #MoMavs.