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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, February 25, 2009

Stat Trick: Penguins 1, Isles 0

Terrific goaltending...no goals...adds up to the Isles 2nd 1-0 loss of the month.  On to the trick...

1.  Petr Sykora had the game's only goal.  It came with 2:28 to play and was his 23rd of the season.

2. Yann Danis made 27 saves as he came within 148 seconds of consecutive shutouts.  His personal shutout streak ended at 150:06 (the Rangers' last goal was an empty netter).

3. Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for his third shutout of the season.

...and a few more...

4. It's the third time this season (Nashville, Tampa) and 17th time in club history that the Isles have lost a 1-0 game.  It's the first time that it's ever happened three times in one season.

5.  Strange but true:  The Isles have been blanked 1-0 three times under Scott Gordon.  Al Arbour was blanked 1-0 only twice in his Islander career (by the NorthStars in 1973 and the Flyers (Bob Froese) in 1983).

6. The Isles were held without a shot in three powerplays.

7. Faceoffs contionue to be a problem with Richard Park out.  The Isles dropped 35 of 56.

8.  The Isles finish February with a record of 0-6-0 on the road and are 1-19-1 in their last 21 on the road.  The Isles have only 14 points on the season, fewest thru 31 games since 1988-89, when they had only 12 (The 1988-89 team won both games 32 and 33 on the road).

9. It's the first time since 1992 that the Penguins have shut out the Isles at the Igloo.  The then-Stanley Cup champions got a shutout from Tom Barrasso on November 3, 1992.

10. Up next: the Isles begin a 6-game homestand on Thursday when they host Jason Blake and the Leafs.  The teams have split the first two games, with both teams winning at home.  It's only the 11th time in club history that they've had a 6+ game homestand (5 of the 11 have been 7-games).

BTW -- with the loss the Isles can finish no higher than 4th in the NHL; they can't mathematically catch Boston, San Jose or Detroit.  Their magic # for playoff extinction has fallen to 19.

 Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982.

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