Mission Accomplished

It was Saturday night in the ole barn as the New York Islanders took on the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Nassau Coliseum.  The Jackets have had and up and down year as evidenced by their 24-26-3 record.  The Islanders won 5-2 on the road in early January in the only previous meeting this year between the two teams.  Columbus beat the Flyers on Friday to start their current five game roadtrip.  Sergei "Bob" Bobrovsky was out with an injury so Anton Forsberg got the start against the Islanders.  Forsberg is a rookie from Sweden with a 0-2 record and a 4.35 GAA and a .861 save percentage so far this year.  The Islanders needed to jump on him early in order to shake his confidence.

This was the fourth straight game for the Islanders against an inferior opponent (that sounds funny to say but for this season it is really a very true statement) with the three previous wins coming by a 3-2 score. The Islanders went with the same lineup from Thursday's win and Halak returned to the net.  It was important not to lose focus and look past Columbus with the Rangers coming to the barn on Monday evening.  The focus had to be completely on the Blue Jackets.

At the drop of the puck the Islanders meant business.  They fed off of the energy from the sellout crowd and had the Blue Jackets on their heels (which may or may not be possible with skates on, but I will go with it).  It was just a matter of time before the puck was in the back of the net.  The BLT line got-r-done just a minute in.  John Tavares sent a pass in front of the net to Lee, Bailey picked up the puck out of Lee's skates and beat Forsberg for a quick 1-0 lead.  It was Bails' 10th goal of the year. 

The Islanders did not let up the pressure.  A couple of minutes later Tavares had the puck in back of Forsberg and held his defender at bay, switched directions and sent a crisp pass to Josh Bailey waiting on the goal line.  Bailey quickly roofed one from a sharp angle and it got by Forsberg before he knew it for a 2-0 lead.  Bails had his 11th goal from Tavares and Leddy.  The Islanders evil plan worked.  They jumped on Forsberg which is exactly what they needed to do.

New York got the first power play of the game when Hartnell knocked down Travis Hamonic along the wall.  Colin McDonald stepped in to stick up for him and the entire pile fell to the ice.  The Blue Jackets got the extra two minutes.  The Islanders were like a shark circling its prey.  They had a number of good chances but in the end could not convert.  

Columbus got their first power play soon thereafter and exerted a tremendous amount of pressure in front of Halak.  The Islanders failed to clear the puck on three attempts, but were able to get through the two minutes unscathed.  Nickolay Kulemin even had a short-handed chance right as the penalty expired.

Similar to Thursday's game against the Maple Leafs, the Islanders dominated play early only to let up for a short stretch which allowed the Blue Jackets to get some momentum.  Johnny Boychuk misplayed the puck and Brandon Dubinsky (ex-Rag) roofed one past Halak on a two on one.  That goal seemed to energize the Blue Jackets and all of sudden the Islanders started to give the puck away.  

The next faux pas belonged to Brian Strait who whiffed on a bouncing puck, which enabled Cam Atkinson to swoop in and beat Halak to tie the game at two apiece.  It was hard to fault Halak with all the giveaways, but that was one that he probably wished to have back.  It was not the way to end the period after starting out so well.  Islanders out shot Columbus 17-11 in the first frame.

In the second period, the Islanders continued to pepper the Swede.  At one point the Islanders had 16 of the first 17 shots of the period.  At around the seven minute mark, Ryan Strome picked up a loose puck after Lubomir Visnovsky failed to score in the slot and put it in the open net to re-claim the lead for the Islanders.  It was Strome's 10th goal of the year.  Afterwards things started to get a bit nasty.  Hamonic and Hartnell dropped the gloves after Nick Foligno got a penalty.  

Columbus scored right as their second power play expired (which was a defacto power play, it just did not count in the statistics).  Casey Cizikas could not contain Jack Johnson on another odd man Columbus rush and took a hooking penalty.  After the power play, the Blue Jackets entered the New York zone and after a nifty game of pass and catch, Hartnell found Foligno to make it 3-3 with about thirty seconds left. It was the straight period where Columbus scored in the final minute.  

As the Islanders started the final stanza, it was important for the team to find a way to win so they could have some momentum going into the Rangers game on Monday.  After the bad taste that they had in their mouth at the end of the second period, they needed to cleanse their palate to start the third period.

Just two minutes in, Mikhail Grabovski went cross ice in the Columbus zone to Thomas Hickey and Fish Oils threaded a hard pass to Frans Nielsen who was standing by the side of he net.  Fransy almost whiffed on it, but had enough juice to squeeze it by Forsberg to give the Islanders a 4-3 lead.  It was Nielsen's 10th goal of the year (that sounds very familiar).

The taste would get even sweeter.  John Tavares was in the back of the Blue Jackets net where he set up shop.  He fed the puck out to Brian Strait at the blue line.  After a shot on goal, Tavares picked up the loose puck in front, wheeled around and wristed it past Forsberg for a 5-3 lead.  It was the Captain's 25th goal of the year and third point of the game.  

Soon thereafter, Tavares grabbed Dubinsky's stick while he was sitting on bench and got caught by referee which sent the Blue Jackets to the power play.  After killing the penalty off, Tavares jumped out of the box and into the play.  He was upset with the penalty call and wanted to take it out on Forsberg.  A two on one quickly developed with Josh Bailey and it ended up with Tavares netting his 26th goal of the year.  The game was 6-3 and that is how it would end.  For the game the Islanders out shot the Blue Jackets 46-37.

For the second game in a row it was a good effort.  The only thing to be critical of is a couple of five minute stretches where the Islanders have allowed the opposition to get back into the game.  Primary contributor to that were the 21 giveaways the Islanders had vs. the Blue Jackets which had 9.  Tavares had a four point night with two goals and Josh Bailey had three points with two goals.  Three Islanders got their 10th goal of the year (Bailey, Strome and Nielsen).  The Islanders were also kinda perfect on the penalty kill (0-4) but were scoreless on the power play (0-4).

The Islanders moved to 37-18-1 which was good for 75 points.  Good teams do not overlook any opponent.  They don't play down to the competition and they dictate the flow of the game.  The Islanders beat who they were supposed to beat this week (Buffalo, Edmonton, Toronto and Columbus).  Mission accomplished.