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The Skinny: Isles 5, Pittsburgh 4

"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 82 Isles 5, Pittsburgh 4    On to the Playoffs! Simon Holmstrom scored the winning goal with 5:3...

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

John Tavares had two goals and three assists, earning a point on every Islander goal as the Isles shocked the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 for their first win in Vancouver in the 21st century.  On to the trick:
1.  Dylan Reese got the Isles started with his first NHL goal 6:22 into play; Tavares doubled the advantage with a power play tally five minutes later.
2. Each team scored twice in the middle session.  Matt Moulson gave the Isles a 3-0 advantage with his team-leading 26th goal.  After Kyle Wellwood and Alex Burrows scored two minutes apart to get the Canuclks within one, Freddy Meyer converted off of a scramble in the period's final seconds to give the Isles a two--goal advantage.
3. The Canucks pressed throughout the third period, and pulled Andrew Raycroft (who had relieved Roberto Luongo) with 2 1/2 minutes to play for the extra skater.  Tavares then hit the empty-net for the final margin of victory.
...a few more...
4. Tavares tied the Isles' rookie club record of five points in a game; he's only the second to do so on the road.
MOST POINTS, ROOKIE, ONE GAME: .................................. 5
John Tavares (2-3)..........................................  3/16/09 at Vancouver
Mikko Makela (2-3)............................................1/28/86 vs. Toronto
Pat LaFontaine (3-2)..............................................3/3/84 at Toronto
Mike Bossy (1-4) ................................................11/1/77 vs. Atlanta
Bryan Trottier (3-2) ..................................10/11/75 vs. Los Angeles

It's the first time in his career that he's had three assists and it is also his 4th two-goal game of the season. Tavares' empty-net goal gives him 20 on the season, joining Matt Duchesne (23) in the 20 goal club.  He now has 41 points, six behind Duchesne for the rookie lead.
5. Dwayne Roloson outplayed golden goaltender Roberto Luongo.  Roloson finished with 35 saves, while Luongo had only eight saves through two periods. 
6.  The Isles, who went through a stretch of eight games in late Janaury/early February where they scored only ten goals, have scored thirteen goals in their last three games.  It's the first time that the Isles have scored at least four goals in regulation of three consecutive games since Dec. 29, 2008- Jan. 2, 2009. They had a five game streak of scoring at least four goals in late Oct/early Nov but an overtime goal produced the fourth goal of the middle game.
7. The Isles record their first road victory since January 9th, which was a 5-4 shootout win in Phoenix.  They had lost eight straight since then.  It's the first time that they have scored five goals during the actual game since January 29, 2009 in Atlanta.
8. The Sedin brothers both extended long assist and point streaks on the goal by Alex Burrows, but the brothers were each -3 on the night.  Daniel now has an 11-game point/assist streak while Henrik has 6-game poinrt/assist streaks. The Isles did stop Ryan Kesler's 13-game point streak and Mikael Samuelsson's 7-game point streak.
9. Stats can lie.  Josh Bailey had a terrific game, but was -1.  Sean Bergenheim had six hits to lead the team.
10.  In winning the only game of the season against Vancouver, the Isles win in Vancouver for the first time since March 19, 1999 (0-2-1).  The Isles are 5-2-1 in their last eight games overall against Vancouver.  The Isles have now won in the 21st century in every opposing city.  Their longest time since a road win now is against Nashville, dating back to 2002.  The five longest droughts (by time, not by games):
11-Apr-02 @ Nashville
19-Dec-02 @ Minnesota
15-Feb-03 @ Los Angeles
19-Feb-03 @ San Jose
13-Mar-03 @ Edmonton
Up next: The road trip continues in Anaheim on Friday.  It's their only meeting of the season with the Ducks.  The Isles have had success over the years in Anaheim, but have not played there since Mike York's shootout goal gave Ted Nolan his first win as Islander coach on October 11, 2006.  The Isles are 2-0-1 in Anaheim since 2000 and are 5-1-1 in their last seven overall against the Duclks.
 Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Freddy MeTer? Are you trying to stir up controversy similar to the Vancouver papers?

Eric Hornick said...

Fixed. Thanks.