New York 5, Calgary 4 shootout

New York Islander Fan Central | 1/12/2008 03:25:00 AM | | |

















Islanders website: Has the recap of Friday's 5-4 shootout win against the Calgary Flames. Brendan Witt has an ankle sprain, Miroslav Satan did not play with a strained knee.

"We kidded with the guys during the first intermission that we're not good with a two-goal lead," said head coach Ted Nolan. "But give this team credit for fighting back and finding a way to win."

"It was a very gutsy performance," said Nolan. "The guys responded tonight. One thing we preach is that any guy on any given night has to step up if guys go down."

"Look at our penalty killers who have done great work all year," said Nolan. "Every time a team is down for four minutes, the guys are exhausted. Credit the work of guys like Hilbert, Sillinger and Park. And you can't stop the power play without our best penalty killer, Ricky."


NYI Fan Central Comments:
I'm sure everyone is going to write the same thing that it was not pretty which of course is true but it was critical the Islanders get a win here and despite losing Witt and going with seven defenders they found a way to survive and get the game to overtime, then a shootout. Maybe they even found something in Park who looked great on his shootout goal with three moves which froze Kiprusoff. Billy Jaffe made a good shootout observation when he noted Sillinger's shot was like Linden's but Kiprusoff's stick is on that side, unlike DiPietro where his glove is on that side so there was less space for Sillinger who made a perfect shot just above the pad.

This was a Calgary team that was something like 16-2 recently even though Phoenix beat them this week. Calgary came out flying but DiPietro held them in and finally the Islanders made some plays with Gervais finding Sillinger for a breakaway goal, Hunter defelecting in a point shot and Fedotenko finding Sillinger again for a clear path at the net.

No skilled goals from sustained pressure in the offensive end, that's what the Islanders need and what I was looking for. For them to stay in this race long term they need it. Four games on this trip and not one goal from sustained offensive pressure.

Calgary came out the Islanders hard in the second after Nolan's goal. They got some deflection goals, a screen goal. Only goal that bothered me was Berard letting Dustin Boyd get position and bang in that rebound. I know Berard has not played much but those were the kind of mistakes that caused his benching.

Islanders could have folded giving up a 3-1 lead and falling behind, but Fedotenko tipped in a shot and after that the Islanders hung in despite some high sticking penalties in the offensive zone that could have killed them down the stretch.

Penalty kill again was outstanding which starts with the goaltender, some big scrambles but they hung in and they did it without Brendan Witt and Radek Martinek which is no small sidebar. Too bad Comrie could not finish his chance in regulation or the pp could do something which again looked lost most of the game.

You take the two points and the fallout and see what happens now with the defense and Satan. This defense now will have to be by committee with Campoli and Gervais having to play huge minutes.

They also have to protect DiPietro better, too many shots against, too many quality chances against.

I have written this a dozen times after games but it applies here, they found a way to win the game and the two points go in the books. They are also finding ways to get games to overtime where earlier they would lose regulation, those points are huge in the end.

Given the Devils, Flyers and Pens are not losing they needed a win here.

We'll see what the injury fallout from this game is. Ottawa plays Detroit Saturday so hopefully the Isles catch Ottawa coming off a tough game.