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The Skinny: Rangers 5, Isles 2

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 68 Rangers 5, Isles 2 Johnny Brodzinski broke a 2-2 tie with 4:59 left in the middle period and ...

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Stat Trick: Isles 2, Rangers 1

Okay, blame me. Just seconds after I gave Howie the note about the Islanders having only one shutout in their history at MSG (12/17/75 for Billy Smith), Markus Naslund broke the shutout. I've never believed in these jinxes, but it happened so quickly I spent about 15 seconds laughing --hopefully you couldn't hear me on the air! On to the trick.

1. As of Monday morning, the Isles had two wins. They now have 4.

2. As of Monday morning, the Isles had three shorthanded goals. They now have a league-leading 6, including a club record-tying two in the third period tonight.

3. The Isles are now 2-2-1 on the road this season. Believe it or not, it's their best road start since the Isles won their first six road games in 2001-02.

and a few more...

4. The Isles are now 6-1 on Presidential Election nights, losing only in 1992.

5. The Isles improve to 8-1-1 in their last ten trips to Manhattan. Six of the eight wins, including the last 4, have been by one goal.

6. While they didn't get the shutout, the Isles allowed only one goal for the first time this season, ending a stretch of 16 straight games (over two seasons) that they had allowed at least two goals.

7. A couple of strange Ranger streaks ended tonight. They had earned at least a point in every game they had allowed the first goal (5-0-1) and in every game that they didn't lead after 20 minutes (8-0-1).

8. The Isles didn't score on the power play tonight, so they still have eight pp goals; they've score six while shorthanded. The six SH goals (4 shy of last year's total) have been scored by six different players.

9. The Isles have been outscored 28-13 at even strength (the Rangers' 6th attacker goal tonight falls into that statistically) but have outscored their opponents 18-13 in all other situations.

10. The Isles are 3-1 in games played on back-to-back nights and 1-6-1 in all other games. They've now won the back-end of four straight back-to-backs dating back to last season.


Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.

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