New York 4, Toronto 3, OT

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/26/2007 11:10:00 PM | | | | |



Rick DiPietro left the game following the first period with a knee injury and will be re-evaluated tomorrow.

Islanders website: Has the recap of tonight's 4-3 overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"We said in between the first and second periods that you never know what's going to happen," said head coach Ted Nolan. "You have to give Wade a lot of credit. He's been working hard in practice. When you're called upon you have to be ready and he was certainly ready tonight."

"When Richard forced the play like that, I saw a 2-on-1 develop," said Comrie about Park's poke-check on Blake. "It happens pretty fast. Once you see the defenseman play it well, you have to go to the net hard. Park made a great play to get the shot through. The rebound was just sitting it there for me and it just trickled by Raycroft."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
That was a lot of fun tonight, good pace by both clubs, three first period goals by the Islanders and an incredible finish where Jason Blake was stripped by Park who's deflected shot left a big rebound for Mike Comrie to finish in the final seconds of overtime.

Between the chant after the goals lately and booing Jason Blake it was a poor showing by some of the Islander fans tonight, even if the overall building was very loud and supportive.

That first period looked like how it was supposed to be drawn up this summer in terms of the offense. Comrie and Guerin producing as a first line and the secondary scoring chipping in. That's four goals for Andy Hilbert in seven games, backboard bounce or not and it easily could have been four or five.

Of course it was against a terrible defense and goaltender but that does not take away from the Islanders, who came out and had a good offensive first period.

Dubie was great when he had to be. That overtime sequence he was fantastic, even with a little luck on Sundin's crossbar. Toronto had some good pressure on him, too bad Sillinger did not finish his chance in the final seconds of regulation.

I did not see Richard Park's ot penalty, but who are the officials kidding not calling Bell for hooking Campoli with an open net in overtime?

Sloppy first period of both sides defensively, Toronto did not get much against DiPietro but he had no help on either goal against. Without his pass to set up Comrie's first goal Islanders do not get to overtime so his starting did help the Islanders win.

Gervais played over twenty seven minutes in Martinek's spot and did a solid job. No
one even mentioned Berard's return on the telecast until he touched the puck.

Another shorthanded goal against is becoming a problem.

More tomorrow on the game. We'll see what the fallout of DiPietro's injury is and Radek Martinek.

Point Blank: Chris Botta has a classy blog about what keeps him going as the organization celebrated his 20th anniversary with the franchise and pointed to tonight's game.

Newsday: Greg Logan had a blog during the game on DiPietro's injury with no updated news. He also had a few words on Jason Blake, Richard Park's goal Saturday and a few other items on the upcoming schedule along with a few words on team USA's win on Wednesday.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio blogs on the Sound Tigers win. Mike Mole was called up to replace Joey MacDonald.

Sound Tigers website: Reports on Bridgeport's 5-4 win at home Wednesday. Jeff Tambellini had two goals and a four point night, Sean Bentivoglio returned to the lineup with two third peirod goals and Frans Nielsen scored.