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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 ...

Saturday, December 03, 2011

The Skinny: Blackhawks 5, Isles 4 (SO)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick
Game 23
Blackhawks 5, Isles 4 (SO)
Jonathan Toews scored the shootout's only goal as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Islanders 5-4 before a sellout crowd of 21,463 at the United Center.  The Isles have earned points in all three games on this road trip (2-0-1).

The Scoring:
1st Period
04:07NYI PPG - Kyle Okposo (3) Snap - ASST: T. Hamonic (3) AND M. Jurcina (3)
10:27CHI Andrew Brunette (6) Wrist - ASST: S. O'Donnell (4) AND D. Carcillo (6)
14:27NYI Matt Moulson (9) Wrist - ASST: P. Parenteau (14) AND J. Tavares (9)
2nd Period
06:41CHI Ben Smith (1) Wrist - ASST: P. Kane (18) AND M. Frolik (5)
18:41CHI SHG - Jonathan Toews (14) Wrist - ASST: B. Seabrook (7) AND D. Keith (14)
 3rd Period
00:46NYI PPG - PA Parenteau (4) Wrist - ASST: M. Moulson (6) AND J. Tavares (10)
05:08CHI PPG - Patrick Sharp (12) Wrist - ASST: P. Kane (19) AND J. Toews (13)
08:55NYI Nino Niederreiter (1) Wrist - ASST: M. Martin (3) AND M. Reasoner (2)
OT Period -NONE

The Shootout:
Frans Nielsen NYI Save
Jonathan Toews CHI Goal
Marian Hossa CHI Save
Matt Moulson NYI Miss (post)
1-0 in shootout, 5-4 Final.

The Skinny:
Tavares' two assists broke a 6-game pointless streak.  He remains tied with PA Parenteau for the team lead in points (18).  Matt Moulson took over the team lead in goals (9) as he scored for the third straight game, while Nino Niederreiter's tying goal was his first in the NHL since October 13, 2010. Patrick Sharp has six goals in 10 career games against the Isles.

The Shots
After the Hawks outshot the Isles 14-13 in the first period and 15-2 in the 2nd period, the Isles turned the totals around by outshooting the Hawks 23-7 in the third period and 3-0 in the overtime for a 41-36 edge.

Getting Ahead
For the third straight game, the Isles scored first and led after one period.  The Isles are 6-1-3 when they score first and 5-0-4 when they lead after one period. 

Coming From Behind
The Isles earned their first point of the season when trailing after two periods (0-10-1).

Home and Road
The Islanders are 7-11-5 overall and 2-5-3 on the road.
The Hawks are 14-8-4 overall and 8-2-2 at home. 

In the Nets
Al Montoya made 32 saves; he is now 4-3-2 on the season. Montoya 16-9-7 in his first 32 NHL career decisions. 
Corey Crawford made 37 saves to improve to 12-7-2.

Lots of Shots
The Isles had a season-high 41 shots on goal.  It was the most shots that the Isles have had in a road game since they had 43 in New Jersey on January 4, 2007.  The Isles are 3-0-3 in the last six games that they have had at least 40 shots and are 6-2-6 in the last 14 games in which they have had at least 40 shots on goal.

As Seen on MSG+
The 23 shots that the Isles had in the third period were two shy of the club record for the third period, set on February 22, 1977 in a 2-1 victory against Colorado.

Lots of Folks
The attendance of 21,463 was the largest at an Islander game since March 15, 2009 (also in Chicago) when 22,140 saw the Isles defeat the Hawks.  Each of the four largest crowds to see the Isles since 1995 have come in Chicago.

4 is a Magic Number
The Isles have earned points in every game this season that they have scored at least four goals (4-0-1).

Power Plays
The Islanders were 2-4 on the power play while the Hawks were 1-4.  The two goals matched their output in the prior seven games (22 chances).  It's the 4th time this season (2nd time on the road) that the Isles have scored twice on the powerplay. The Isles have killed 10-11 over the last three games. 

Shorty for Toews
Toews gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead late in the second period with a shorthanded goal.  It was the first shorthanded goal allowed by the Isles this season; only the Rangers, Stars and Bruins have not allowed a shorthanded goal.  The Isles had gone 25 games without allowing a shorthanded goal (including the final three games last season). 

Overcoming the Shorty
The Isles earned a point despite allowing a shorthanded goal.  It's only the second time in 17 games (0-15-2) that the Isles have earned even a single point in a game they allowed a shorthanded goal.  The Isles, who had suffered ten consecutive regulation losses in games they allowed a shorty, last won a game in which they allowed a shorthanded goal on March 4, 2008 when they defeated the Rangers in a shootout.

They Said It
Coach Capuano: "Overall I was real happy with our performance…Al made some key saves."

They Tweeted It
@StanFischler: "Islanders stick-to-it-tiveness impressive in Chi. Shootout loss despite excellent third period pressure. A feel-good 5 of 6 points on road."

The Hit Leader
Matt Martin led all player with seven hits and extended his league lead over Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck.  Martin has 104 hits while Clutterbuck has 91. The Isles have played two fewer games than the Wild.

Leading Ice Men
Mark Streit led the Isles with 25:37; Duncan Keith led all players with 29:10.

No Goals for John
John Tavares had four shots on goal, but saw his goalless streak extend to 12 games.  He has had 42 shots on goal during that stretch. Moulson's first period goal game him the team lead for the first time this season

5-5-5
Milan Jurcina had five shots, five blocks, and five hits.  However he and Steve Staios were both -3.

All But Marty
Marty Reasoner's work earned him an assist on the tying goal (his second point of the season); he was the only Islander without a shot on goal.

Third Periods
The Isles outscored the Hawks 2-1 in the third period. The Isles have been outscored 18-5 in the third period over the last 12 games (including three empty net goals against).  The Isles have been outscored 29-12 overall in the third period (23-10 if you exclude empty nets).  In the first two periods, the Isles have been outscored 40-35.

After Hours
The Isles are 0-3 in games decided by an overtime goal and 0-2 in shootouts, dropping each shootout by a 1-0 score.  The Isles are 2-11 in their last 13 games that have gone beyond 60 minutes (1-7 in overtime and 1-4 in shootout)

79 to Go
The Isles have scored 9,921 goals in their history (excluding 39 shootout winners), leaving the club 79 shy of 10,000.

Over .500
The Islanders remain over all-time NHL .500 with the shootout loss (1320-1319-426 in 3,065 games).  They have been below NHL .500 for only 1 day since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

47 in 23
The Isles have scored 47 goals in the first 23 games, matching the club record for fewest goals thru 23 games.  The Isles have scored 25 goals in their seven wins (3.57 per game) and 22 goals in their other 16 games (0-11-5; 1.38 per game).  In their 11 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 8 goals (0.73 per game).

Fewest Goals, First 23 Games
·         47 – 2011-2012
·         47 – 1999-2000
·         49 – 1972-1973
·         51 – 2010-2011

In the Circle
The Islanders won 26 of 62 (42%) face-offs.  Josh Bailey won 7 of 14 for the Isles while Toews won 14 of 22 for the Isles.

Missing Men
Micheal Haley(healthy) and Andrew MacDonald (foot) was scratched.  Jay Pandolfo, Marc Eaton, Evgeni Nabokov, and Mark Katic are on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 81 man-games to injury so far this season.  Dylan Reese made his season debut on defense in place of MacDonald.

Ironmen
Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 187 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 85 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles. 

Season Series Stats
The Blackhawks lead the season series one game to none (two points to one).  The Isles are 3-1-1 in their last five visits to Chicago and are 6-1-1 in their last eight against the Hawks, who will be at the Coliseum on Thursday December 8th.

Happy Anniversary
32 years ago tonight: December 2, 1979.   Billy Smith made 33 saves and Anders Kallur scored the winning goal as the Isles blanked the Jets 4-0 in their first-ever visit to Winnipeg.
Overall, the Isles are 8-9-2 on this date.

On The Farm
The Sound Tigers let a 3-1 lead get away on Friday in Albany, dropping a 4-3 decision.  Bridgeport hosts Albany on Saturday night. 

Up Next
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3RD ISLANDERS AT DALLAS 8:30PM
[MSG+2 (Islanders Game Night at 8:00pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]
The Islanders conclude their road trip on Saturday when they face the first place Dallas Stars for the first of two meetings this season.
Dallas has won the last four meetings between the teams, with the Isles going 0-2-2 in the four contests.  The Islanders will face Dynasty-child Eric Nystrom.  Nystrom, acquired by waivers in October, has nine goals this season for the Stars.
The Isles will be looking to extend their point streak to four, all on the road.  The last time the Isles earned a point in four consecutive road games was on December 16, 2009-January 6, 2010 (3-0-1).

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 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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