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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 ...

Friday, November 11, 2011

The Skinny: Colorado 4, Isles 3 (OT)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick
 
Game 13
Colorado 4, Isles 3 (OT)
 
Kyle Quincey scored a power play goal midway through the overtime session as the Colorado Avalanche wiped out a 3-0 Islander lead and defeated the Isles 4-3 before 13,221 at Pepsi Center.  The Isles are 1-5-3 in their last nine games, but have earned points in four of the last six (1-2-3).

Great Start
For the first time in five games, the Islanders grabbed the lead in the opening period as Josh Bailey tipped home a Mark Streit shot for his first goal of the season at 15:36 of the session.  It was a power play tally for Bailey and the 9,900th in Islander history (excluding shootouts). Streit earned an assist; he has been on-ice for 6 of the Isles' eight PP goals and has a point on all six of them.  The Avs outshot the Isles 12-9 in the opening session.

Isles Dominate the 2nd Period ... at least the first 19 minutes
Brian Rolston scored his second goal in three games, just 34 seconds into the period.  PA Parenteau and Frans Nielsen had assists; PA leads the squad with ten helpers.  Michael Grabner made it 3-0 at 8:00 as he scored for the second straight game.  It was his 5th goal of the season.

The Isles had a power play with 2:46 to play but penalties to Matt Moulson and Jay Pandolfo eventually flipped it to a 5-on-3 for Colorado.  Peter Stastny capitalized with 21 seconds to play to cut the Isles' lead to 3-1.   Colorado outshot the Isles 19-14 in the 2nd period.

All Avs in the 3rd
Milan Hejduk scored 6:07 into the 3rd and Jan Hejda's drive from the top of the left face-off circle for his first goal of the season evened the score just past the midway point.  When the Isles couldn't capitalize on a late power play, including a big stop by JS Giguere at the buzzer, the game headed to overtime.

Quincey Wins It
With the Avs on the power play due to an Al Montoya penalty, Kyle Quincey scored the winning goal at 2:39 of the extra session on a screen shot.  4-3 Final.

Home and Road
The Islanders are 4-6-3 overall and 0-3-2 on the road.  The Isles are 0-6-2 in their last eight on the road, dating back to a 5-2 win in Tampa last March 22nd.
The Avs are 8-7-1 overall and 2-5-0 at home.  After scoring just seven goals in their first six home games, the Avs struck 4 times in 23 minutes tonight.

Pacesetters
With two points in the first five road games, the Isles are 3 points behind last season's pace; with 11 points in 13 games, the Isles are one point ahead of last season's pace.

In the Nets
Al Montoya faced a career high 51 shots and made a career high 47 saves. He is now 2-2-1 on the season.
JS Giguere made 30 saves for the Avs as he improved to 3-1 on the season.

Lots of Shots Against
The 51 shots allowed (on 11-10-11) are the most allowed by the Isles since Vancouver had 51 on 01-11-11.  The Rangers had 52 shots against the Isles last December 27th.  Those were the only two times the Isles allowed at least 50 shots last season.  The Isles are 1-3-2 over the last four seasons when allowing at least 50 shots with the win coming in 58-save Dwayne Roloson effort in Toronto two Novembers ago.

Giving Up the Lead
The Isles had a 3-0 lead but could not hold it.   It's the first time since January 2, 2010 that the Isles have allowed the opposition to rally from a 3-0 deficit.  In that game, Atlanta rallied from 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 deficits before the Isles prevailed 6-5 in a shootout.  The last time the Isles had a 3-0 lead and did not win was on October 10, 2009 in Boston, when the Bruins won 4-3 in a shootout.
It's only the 2nd time this season the Isles have had a 3-goal lead at any point, and the first time they have done it on the road since last March 22nd.

Moving On Up
With his goal, Brian Rolston moved into a tie for 142nd place on the all-time goal scoring list.

Career goals:
141. Phil Housley 338
142. Brian Rolston /Alexei Yashin / Glen Murray  337

Power Plays
The Islanders were 1-3 on the power play while the Avs were 2-6.   The Isles are now 8-45 on the power play and 36-45 on the penalty kill this season. They are 3-20 in the last six games on the power play and 12-19 in the same stretch on the penalty kill.   The Avs entered the game with an NHL-best 29.2% power play but were only 2-19 at home entering play.

They Tweeted It           
@BComptonNHL  "First Bailey and now Rolston. Exactly what was needed is being delivered."

They Said It
 Kevin Weekes on NHL Network:  "Montoya was absolutely brilliant, I have to say, facing 51 shots".

Head of the Class
John Tavares and Matt Duchene ended the night the same way they started it – each with 134 career points.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close.   Tavares has scored 8 of the Islanders' 28 goals this season (28.6%), by far the highest percentage of a team's goals of any team in the NHL.

The Hit Leader
Matt Martin fought Ryan Wilson after Wilson cross-checked Tavares; he added 2 hits to extend his NHL-leading total to 58.   Steve Staios also dropped the gloves – with Colorado's David Jones.  The veteran rearguard is no stranger to the fisticuffs—he has had 63 regular season NHL fights.

Leading Ice Men
Travis Hamonic led all players with 27:13.  It was the second-highest total by an Islander this season (Streit 27:31 at Pittsburgh, 10/27)  Quincey led the Avs with 25:57.

98 to Go
The Isles have scored 9,902 goals in their history (excluding 39 shootout winners), leaving the club 101 shy of 10,000.

Still Searching
The Isles have two regular forwards (Blake Comeau and Jay Pandolfo) who have yet to record a point.

28 in 13
The Isles have scored 28 goals in the first 13 games; only Butch Goring's 1999-2000 club (26 goals in 13 games) scored fewer.  The Isles have scored 16 goals in their four wins (4.00 per game) and 12 goals in their other nine games (0-6-3; 1.33 per game).

Best D since the Lockout
The Isles have allowed only 38 goals (does not include 1 in a shootout) in 13 games (2.92 goals per game), equaling the 2007-08 team for the fewest goals that the Isles have allowed in the first 13 games since 2003-04, when they allowed 33.

In the Circle
The Islanders rallied in the circle in the 3rd period and finished 33 of 66 (50%) for the night on face-off.  John Tavares won 13 of 17 for the Isles; Paul Stastny won 16 of 25 for the Avs.

Missing Men
Milan Jurcina and Evgeni Nabokov were scratched. Nino Niederreiter is in Bridgeport on a conditioning assignment.  The Isles have two players on injured reserve: Rhett Rakhshani and Mark Katic.  The Isles have lost 52 man-games to injury so far this season.

Ironmen
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 177 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 75 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles.

Season Series Stats
The Avs win the season series one game to none (two points to one).   The Isles have earned points in the last ten games vs. Colorado, with seven wins, a tie and two overtime losses since a 1-0 loss in Denver on November 16, 2001.    The 13,221 attendance marked the smallest crowd ever for an Isles-Avs game in Denver.

Happy Anniversary
4 years ago tonight: November 10, 2007.  Martin Brodeur came to Long Island in search of his 500th NHL win, but the Islanders had other ideas.  Miroslav Satan scored the winning goal at 6:25 of the third period as the Isles beat the future hall-of-famer 2-1.

Overall the Islanders are now 7-11-1 on this date, with each of the last six games decided by a single goal.

On The Farm
Bridgeport is 6-5-1-0.   The Sound Tigers will begin a 3-game in 3-day road trip with a Veterans Day matinee in Worcester.  Justin DiBenedetto (8-4-12) continues to lead Bridgeport in goals and points, while David Ullstrom is second in goals with 7. Casey Cizikas and Tim Wallace share the club lead in assists and are tied for second in points with identical 3-7-10 totals; defenseman Dylan Reese also has seven assists.  Anders Nilsson is off to a solid start in nets with a 4-1 record and a 2.79 GAA; his 4 wins rank 2nd among AHL rookies.

Up Next
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH ISLANDERS AT VANCOUVER 9:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 8:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]

John Tavares returns to the site of one of the best moments of his rookie season as the road trip (0-1-1) concludes in Vancouver against the Western Champion Vancouver Canucks.  Tavares had two goals and three assists in the Isles' last visit to Vancouver (3-16-10). 

The teams have split the last four meetings, with three of the four meetings ending in shootouts.  (The Isles are 2-0-2; Vancouver is 2-1-1).

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources.  Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter.

 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

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