Isles Give Thanks For…3 Straight Wins
November 28th, 2006 by murph
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope you had a great holiday. The boys in blue and orange certainly did, winning all three games of the holiday homestand. The holidays and/or the wins also brought out an improvement in attendance for all three games, including a season high of 15,625 Friday afternoon vs. the Penguins.
Unfortunately, the third win vs. Washington ended on a sour note when Isles’ leading scorer Alexei Yashin was injured in the third period after a knee on knee collision with the Capitals’ Matt Bradley. Yash had an MRI on Monday, and will be out for 2-4 weeks. Yashin has been a quick healer in the past, so hopefully the diagnosis is correct and he won’t miss much more time than that.
Back to the games, last Wednesday night the Islanders came out incredibly strong against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes. The Isles outshot Carolina 20-1 in the first period, with Carolina’s only shot coming with less than 2 minutes in the period on net a harmless dump in that Ricky played into the corner. Shawn Bates scored to give the Isles a 1-0 lead after one. The Isles peppered Hurricanes’ goalie John Grahame with 17 more shots in the 2nd, but could not increase their lead. If this was last year’s team, you could have seen the third period collapse coming. But this is the 2006-07 Isles and Blake scored his team leading 12th goal of the year 59 seconds into the third to give the Isles some breathing room at 2-0. Yash scored a wraparound to make it 3-0, and the Isles won 4-2 as they outshot Carolina 48-15. I can’t find it anywhere, but I think the announced attendance was 13,000+.
Isles/Canes highlights
Friday afternoon the Islanders played a matinée vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pens’ superstar/Olympic diver/serial whiner Sydney Crosby missed his 2nd straight game with a groin pull. Fans looking forward to seeing Sid the Kid should not fret, as the Islanders and Penguins will face each other four times in the next three weeks thanks to the NHL’s wonderful unbalanced schedule. Richard Park and Rick DiPietro were the first period heroes, helping to kill another 5-on-3 power play against the Islanders. Park broke his stick early in the shift and then proceeded to block two Penguins shots from the point with his body. The Penguins were 0-9 on the powerplay as the Islanders defense, especially shorthanded, is playing very well. Yashin netted the game’s first goal early in the second and then Satan and Hill scored in the third to give the Isles a 3-0 lead. Good to see Satan scoring again - he had a couple of empty netters last week, but it’s been a while since he scored on an actual goalie. The Pens’ other wonder-kid, Evgeni Malkin broke up DP’s shutout with about 8 minutes left to play. Brendan Witt drilled Malkin later in the game with a solid, clean hit that sent Malkin right to the dressing room. Word from the Pens was that Malkin had his bell rung, and his previously injured shoulder was just fine. ‘Atta boy Witter! As mentioned, the Isles had a season high attendance of 15,625 for the 3-1 win.
Isles/Pens highlights
Finally, the Islanders wrapped up the homestand on Saturday night as Bob Bourne was inducted into the Islanders Hall of Fame (photos). In addition to the pre-game ceremonies, the team sported “BB” patches on their jerseys. Jason Blake continued his scoring assault, notching the game’s first two goals - one in the first, and one in the second. Richard Park scored late in the second giving the Isles a 3-0 lead. Washington’s own wonder-kid, Alexander Ovechkin scored a PP goal early in the third to cut the lead to 3-1, but that’s as close as they would come. Trent Hunter iced the game with a shorthanded goal late in the third for the 4-1 final. Another strong job by the Isles PK as the Capitals were 1/8 with the man advantage. Announced attendance was 13,000+.
