Back Where We Belong

Welcome to the last twenty games to the season.  The Islanders came into a Friday night home game at the Nassau Coliseum tied in points with the Rags.  New York has been a little above average the past couple of weeks while the other New York team has been pretty hot, which has allowed that New York team to draw even with the other.  Speaking of hot, the Flames of Calgary were on the docket as the Islanders opponent.  Yes, the same Flames that years ago in Atlanta called the Omni home.  Calgary is having a pretty good year in the Western Conference with a 33-24-4 record for 70 points. 

The Islanders went with the same lineup from the home win against the Arizona Coyotes.  There was some concern that Frans Nielsen would not be able to go after a hit that he took last game, but he gave the thumbs up to Head Coach Jack Capuano before the game.  Jaroslav Halak was back in net for the surging Chad Johnson.  It was going be interesting to see how he played after a poor performance against the Vancouver Canucks.

Right out of the gate the Islanders were all over the Flambes with good pressure by the Bailey-Tavares-Lee line to start the game.  Anders Lee almost had a goal off of a rebound in the first minute, but Josh Bailey knocked the Calgary net off of its moorings.  The Islanders would get the first power play of the night and towards the end of the man advantage they were able to convert to take a 1-0 lead.  

After Tavares made a good play to keep the puck in the Calgary zone, there was a scrum in front of Karri Ramo and Ryan Strome stampeded in to knock it in the net for his 14th goal of the year.  Tavares got his 64th point of the year to tie him for the league lead in points and Hamonic got the second assist.  The Islanders out shot the Flambes 15-7 for the period.

In the second period the teams traded power plays.  However, Calgary also got a penalty shot when Johnny Boychuk had to hustle back after giving the puck away and got his stick between the legs of Michael Ferland.  Halak came up big with the one on one save to keep the game at 1-0.  Towards the end of the period Lubomir Visnovsky committed a penalty that carried over to the third period.  The Islanders once again had the edge in shots 11-8.

The last frame was going to be a challenge because all year long the Flambes have made a habit of coming back from deficits to win hockey games.  To start, the Islanders were able to kill off the bifurcated power play.  Then after a couple of good shifts there was some traffic in front of  Ramo when Cal Clutterbuck knocked the puck into the net.  However, the goal was waived off because of goaltender interference.  It was a horrible call as Brock Nelson was shoved into Ramo by another Flambe.

There was not much action the rest of the way until the last minute.  Halak tried to score a goal with an empty net.  Then the Islanders were able to skate out of their own zone and Clutterbuck tried to put it in an empty net only to hit the post.  The puck bounced into the corner where Clutterbuck corralled it and flung it towards the net only to have it bounce in for the goal and a 2-0 lead.  

Only fair that Clutterbuck got the goal after one was taken away from him earlier in the period.  It was Clutterbuck's 6th goal of the year from Nickolay Kulemin and Thomas Hickey.  The Flambes got a late goal to make the final 2-1 to ruin Halak's shutout.  With the shots being pretty even in the third period the Islanders were able to stay ahead for the entire game at 39-27.

It was not a very entertaining game.  No one really stood out at all for the Islanders, but you know what they say, "a win is a win."  The Islanders certainly will not send back the two points.  Tomorrow in the late afternoon the Carolina Hurricanes come to town so the Islanders will have to come back with a much better effort to win back to back games.

With the two points the Islanders moved to 41-20-2 which was good for 84 points to launch them back atop the Metropolitan Division.  That meant that New York was no longer tied with New York for first place.  It was the Islanders that were back on top.  In other words, they were back where they belong.