Isles Fall in OT to Pens
October 20th, 2006 by murph
Once again penalties were the deciding factor in another Islanders loss. Sergei Gonchar’s PP goal in OT won the game 4-3 for the Penguins last night. Yashin was sitting in the box for a hooking call while icing his bleeding hand after a no-call slash by Penguins superstar Sydney Crosby. Coach Nolan had some not so kind words about Syd the Kid’s style of play…
“I think for a world-class player, for a guy of his caliber, he’s diving every time someone touches him.”
“No question in my mind, he should have been called for a slash before Yashin had a chance to hook him,” Nolan said. “I’m not saying Yashin’s wasn’t a penalty, I’m just saying there should have been a penalty before. If Yashin maybe acted like Crosby and dove, maybe he would have gotten that call.”
As much as we like to pick on Yashin, I can’t complain about his performance last night - 1G, 2A. He has played well on his new line with Kozlov and Blake. Sure the penalty led to the game winning goal, but under the circumstances you can’t blame him for the loss.
The Penguins converted 2 of their first 4 PP chances for a 2-0 lead early in the second. The Isles impressively stormed back with 3 goals in 3 minutes late in the second. Yashin scored even strength to make it 2-1, and then assisted on Sillinger and Blake’s PP goals as the Isles led 3-2 after 2 periods. Pittsburgh finished 3/8 on the PP, and the Isles 2/7.
The Penguins newest wunder-kid, Evgeni Malkin tied the game up at 3 with his 2nd NHL goal in as many games. Malkin was setup by Crosby who kicked the puck to him from behind the net. The pass surprised Dunham, and Malkin’s shot found it’s way behind the Islanders’ goalie. Dunham finished with 32 saves.
Rick DiPietro returned to the Islanders roster last night, but Nolan elected to give his groin pull a couple of extra days as Mike Dunham got his fourth straight start in goal. Prior to last night’s game, Dunham was leading the league in save percentage. I’m pretty sure we’ll see Ricky’s return Saturday night vs the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes,
