The Islanders played their best game in awhile tonight. You can't say they didn't work hard, scoring five goals. They haven't scored four or more goals since Octobor 16th, which was a 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
The game had a great pace to it and that's what both teams needed tonight. Trevor Gillies got the crowd going early in the first by dropping the gloves with Derek Boogard. Both of them fought until they were tired and went to their respective penalty boxes. The Islanders knew they needed physical play in their lineup, especially tonight, and Gillies addressed it along with Martin this evening.
Matt Martin squared off with Mike Sauer late in the second as well. You got to hand it to Gillies because as you can see, when Trevor and Derek were lined up ready to bout, there was clearly a big size difference between the two. The best was after the Gilles/Boogard fight, Matt Martin and Zenon Konopka (Trevor Gillies' line mates) skated over to the box to praise Trevor. That shows respect.
Erik Christensen lit the lamp first in the game tonight after he roofed one just above DiPietro's left shoulder. Minutes later, the Rangers would light the lamp again but it was answered by Zenon Konopka late in the period. He netted his first goal as an Islander as he squeezed the puck through former Islanders' goaltender Martin Biron.
With 10:40 to go in the second period, former Ranger PA Parenteau made a nice play to keep the puck in the zone to John Tavares and Tavares found Moulson all alone in front. Moulson pulled off a little deke on Biron who was going for the poke check and it failed. The lamp was lit and Moulson scored his ninth goal of the season.
Moments later in the period, Rob Schremp was set up on a one timer. He took a slap shot and the goal horn sounded again. Rangers head coach John Tortorella pulled Martin Biron with Henrik Lunquist replacing him.
Brandon Prust would tie it up for his second of the season after his shot went off of Andrew MacDonald, who returned to the lineup tonight after suffering a broken hand and being sidelined for more than a month.
Marian Gaborik had the crowd going after he made a nice play over to Brandon Callahan but it turned out that Callahan didn't even touch it and Zenon Konopka did and deflected it into his own net. Gaborik was credited with the goal.
Going into the third and final period, the Islanders and Rangers both acquired 22 shots on goal. Gaborik would change that, though by giving the Rangers a 5-3 lead and scoring his second of the night. It was the 50th time he had a multi goal game. Following the goal, the Isles would go on their first power play of the game but failed to score.
A few minutes after the Isles power play, Radek Martinek took a shot from the point and Michael Grabner deflected it to give the Isles sort of a wake up call to tie up the game. He gave them a wake up call alright. After a nice play setup by PA Parenteau, Comeau barely touched the puck and it crossed the line of the left side of the post to tie the game at five. Defenseman Travis Hamonic recorded his first NHL point as he assisted on Comeau's goal.
Moments after, Marian Gaborik recorded a hat trick which was eventually the game winning goal.
You can't say the Isles didn't play with effort tonight, though. Look at the past 15 games and compare it to tonight. The Isles were in a big scoring slump and tonight they finally got out of it, scoring five goals.
Some blamed the six goals on Rick DiPietro, but most of the goals weren't his entire fault. Two players on the Islanders deflected the puck into their own net. Clearly, DiPietro had no chance and it wasn't his fault.
Following the game, in an interview with DiPietro that was broadcasted by MSG Plus 2, Rick stated the following:
"Both teams fought hard but at the end of they day, it's a loss"
The important factor is that tonight the Islanders fought hard, as Rick stated. They didn't come away with two points but it's certainly a start after recently ending a 14 game losing streak. They'll go at it again tomorrow this time it being at MSG. It is confirmed that Dwayne Roloson will start.
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