A Scary Thought Indeed

The Islanders started a four game home stand against the Western Conference with a game against the Minnesota Ex-Islanders...um...Wild at the Nassau Coliseum.  The Wild have three former Islanders on their squad in Nino Niederreiter, Sean Bergenheim, and Thomas Vanek.  Stop and think where the Islanders would be today if they did not trade Niederreiter for Cal Clutterbuck, if they did not let Bergenheim leave for free agency, and if they had signed Vanek to the $50M contract they offered him.  It is a scary thought indeed.

The Wild came into the game on a roll., having won 7 of their previous 10 games with 89 points (41-25-7) and in the hunt for one of the wild cards for the playoffs..  They have been riding a horse named Devan Dubnyk who came into the game with 23-6-1, a 1.74 GGA and a .937 save percentage.  Minnesota was playing the second of a back-to-back after beating up on the Toronto Marlies at the Air Canada Center on Monday evening.

As for the Islanders, they had been off since Saturday's shutout of the New Jersey Devils and have only played a couple of games in the last nine days.  The game against the Wild was also Pat Lafontaine night so there was sure to be a sell out.  The forwards remained the same with the only change being on defense with Calvin deHaan replacing Matt Donovan in the lineup.  Jaroslav Halak was in net for the Islanders.  With only nine games left in the season and a string of home games against some tough opponents it probably was a good time to turn up the effort a notch or two.

The first period was one of the best of the year.  Lots of action with nothing on the scoresheet to show for it.  The Islanders had sustained pressure throughout and spent a lot of time in the Minnesota zone.  They outshot the Wild 16-5 which did not even include another 10 shots that were blocked.  The Islanders tried to jump on the Wild early on knowing that they travelled from Toronto the night before.  The only reason the Islanders did not get on the scoreboard is that Dubnyk stood on his head.   

There was more of the same in the second period until special teams played a part in the game.  After the 15 minute mark, Thomas Hickey took the first penalty of the game, but the Islanders were able to kill it off, which ended up being their 23rd straight kill in March.  Then a couple of minutes later a holding penalty gave the Islanders chance on their powerless play and they were able to finally get one by Dubnyk for a 1-0 lead with less than 30 seconds to go in the period.  

As the Islanders crowded the net, Tavares picked up a rebound and kept hacking away until he was able to knock the puck over Dubnyk's pads.  Technically it was not a power play goal, but was a direct result of power play pressure.  So I guess we can still call it a powerless play until we actually get credited with a power play goal.  It was Tavares' 34th goal of the year with assists from Kyle Okposo and Anders Lee (both of which are Minnesota natives).  However, even though the shots were pretty even for the period you could tell that the Wild were starting to get back in the game.

For the final period, the Islanders came out hard, looking for the clinching goal.  Brock Nelson had the best chance when he broke in on net and stick handled through one of the Wild defenseman and backhanded a shot that Dubnyk ate up.  It was tough sledding the rest of the way for the Islanders as Minnesota increased the pressure..  Zach Parise eventually tied the game at 1-1 with a little over eight minutes to go when he followed up on his own shot to put the puck as well as himself past Halak into the net.

The overtime was a bit wide open with both teams having a point in the bank..  It got real scary when Thomas Vanek got a breakaway opportunity to end it.  As he bore down on Halak, the headline started to materialize in Wednesday's Newsday.  It made perfect sense for Vanek to end it right then and there, but it was not to be as Halak kicked the puck out with his right pad.  Johnny Boychuk had his own breakaway opportunity but was denied by Dubnyk.  The ended up going to the skills competition where the Wild won the game on a Zach Parise shot that Halak kicked into the net by himself.

The Islanders played a good game, but just ran into a hot goaltender.  There would be more concern if they were not getting chances.  Eventually shots will go in, but that being said they cannot sit back and hope for that to happen.  The Islanders need to continue to work hard, especially with the Kings, Ducks and Red Wings coming up this week.  There will be hot goalies in the playoffs so they need to figure out how to win these close games.

It was tough to lose to the Wild with so many ex-Islanders on their team.  At least Niederreiter, Bergenheim, and Vanek did not score a goal in their final game in the Nassau Coliseum.  However, it could have been a lot worse.  The Islanders could have lost the game with those same three players on their team.  As mentioned before, a scary thought indeed.