Isles Rally in 3rd, Knock Off Blueshirts

Today the Isles took on their crosstown rivals, the Rangers, in an afternoon Columbus Day special. For the most part, this game was a back-and-forth, almost equal show of power from both New York teams; but the real excitement came in the final period. With 7:14 remaining in the 3rd, the Rangers broke a 3-3 tie when Anisimov fired a pass from Gaborik through the legs of DiPietro. Later on, with little time to spare, with the Islanders on a 5-on-3 power play, former Ranger PA Parenteau got the Islanders even after firing a rebound from Wisniewski’s shot past Lundqvist on stick side. Soon thereafter, the Islanders found themselves on yet another power play – and capitalized, again. This time it was Blake Comeau, scoring his second goal of the game; Josh Bailey took the puck behind the goal line, curled it back around to Comeau who was out in front of Lundqvist, who would then put it home. This would give the Islanders the late lead, which would prove enough, even though Frans Nielsen would later score on the Rangers’ empty net to seal the game at 6-4, for the Islanders. With that win the Islanders are now 1-0-1, undefeated in regulation, for now. However, an impressive start, nonetheless. When asked about the Islanders’ strong march out of the gates, Coach Scott Gordon noted: "I think for our team it is good to start with three points out of four at home. We’ve got 12 of our next 14 games on the road and the fact that we were able to come away with these points is huge because it’s certainly not going to be easy on the road. So going into it for us to be able to do what we did, in the manner that we did it, obviously we’re thrilled. Losing John [Tavares] last game you don’t expect your team to come away with ten goals in the first two games.” When asked about what it meant to beat the Rangers today, #1 star Blake Comeau said: "It’s big. I think we’ve got that ‘never say die’ attitude. I’ve said it before, we’ve got a different feeling in this room. We’ve got the feeling we can win every game, and we’re not just satisfied with a good effort. This is the year where we want to see results.” On the same subject, winning goaltender Rick DiPietro noted: "I thought with Dallas we took a step in the right direction, battled back in the third period to tie that up. Like I said last game, unfortunately I couldn’t, you know, do my job and pull out that extra point, but tonight the power play bailed us out again. The guys played hard. It’s a great rivalry and a great game. [...] It helps when you get a 5-on-3 that late in the game. Guys work hard, and when you work hard, good things happen. I think that’s the biggest thing we stressed is ... there’s only so many things you can control in a hockey game, and effort is one of them. We may win, we may lose, but the effort’s always going to be there, and it paid off tonight.” (Originally posted on Islanders Hockey Blog)