So the first place New York Islanders beat the first place and undefeated Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime by a score of 2-1 on a beautiful goal by John Tavares. The Isles also got beautiful goaltending from 41 year old Dwayne Roloson.
Roloson was magnificent in goal keeping the Islanders alive even when they were struggling. But even Roloson couldn't do it all on his own. Defenseman Radek Martinek made what might have been the best save of the night with about ten seconds left in the third period with the game tied at one.
The Isles got on the board early in the second period on a beautiful goal by Matt Moulson from an equaly as pretty pass by John Tavares just as the powerplay was ending.
The Isles kept the lead throughout the second period and almost all of the third until Phil Kessel scored on the powerplay for the Leafs with under two minutes left. Jon Sim failed to clear the puck out of the Isles zone, and the ensuing Toronto forecheck lead to James Wisniewski taking a cross-checking penalty with 2:41 remaining to set up the Kessel goal.
Tavares' overtime goal came on the powerplay off a pass from Wisniewski. Tavares ripped a shot short side of J.S. Giguere's glove to win it. The Maple Leafs' Brett Lebda took a goaltender interference penalty to setup the eventual game winning goal by Tavares.
In order to win games you need your goalie to play excellent, your defense to play excellent, and your best player to score key goals. All of that happened tonight for the Islanders. The Isles just need to work on discipline. They cannot keep taking penalties late in games and hope to keep winning. But regardless, tonight was an excellent game for the Islanders. They proved once again that they are a resilient bunch. They can have a goal scored on them late, lose the momentum, and still find a way to win it. The Islanders of last year would not have won tonight's game.
The only downside to tonight's game was Josh Bailey going down with a hip flexor injury. He got hurt checking Dion Phanuef in the first period, and was seen skating awkwardly back to the bench. He played the rest of the first, and a little over two minutes of the second period before calling it a night. Hopefully this injury is a short term one, because the Islanders certainly cannot afford to lose Bailey for any extended amount of time. He has been their best player since the season started, and they are still without Rob Schremp, Kyle Okposo, and Mark Streit.
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