Sabres Steamroll Dunham, Isles 6-4
March 31st, 2007 by murph
Buffalo, the NHL’s leading team won their 50th game of the season last night over the Islanders with a 5 goal explosion in the first period. Even-strength, powerplay and short-handed, they scored every which way except for an empty-netter in the first period chasing Mike Dunham after 20 minutes. I think the Sabres were trying to scare the Isles - “Do you guys really want to make the playoffs? You’re just gonna have to play us 4 more times.”
As I turned the game on last night, my thoughts of “Alright, Islanders powerplay! Let’s get the early jump on the Sabres.” quickly turned to “Oh %$#&” as Marc Andre Bergeron tried to keep a Buffalo clearing attempt in the zone only to have it bounce past him and Buffalo’s Derek Roy streak past him for a breakaway. Roy beat Dunham over his right shoulder for the shorthanded goal and a 1-0 lead.
The Isles’ next powerplay was more successful as Blake netted his 39th of the season to tie the game at 1. Then…the wheels fell off the bus. Vanek made a nice move behind the net and beat the rusty Dunham with a wraparound. Then the Isles started taking penalties, giving Buffalo a 5-on-3 powerplay on which they converted on both chances for a 4-1 lead. Finally, Drury scored his 2nd of the period for Buffalo taking the puck away from Robitaille at the point for another shorthanded breakaway goal and a 5-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Coach Nolan pulled Dunham (12 shots, 7 saves) after the first for Wade Dubielewicz who finished the game with 17 saves on 18 shots. He is clearly the sharper goalie at this point and needs to start in goal tonight.
To Nolan and the Islanders credit, they didn’t roll over the rest of the game. They came on strong in the 3rd, picking up a pair of goals to make it 5-3 early in the period and almost 5-4 as Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller made a nice save on a Brendan Witt redirection. The Isles then got in penalty trouble again with Yashin taking a completely uncalled for hooking penalty that the Isles were able to kill, and a Robitaille holding penalty that led to the Sabres’ 6th goal.
Stats of the Game - Isles PP 3/8, 2 SHG allowed, Buffalo PP 3/7, 2 SHG scored. 5 special teams goals allowed by the Islanders.
The only break the Islanders got last night was in Ottawa where the Senators beat Montreal 5-2, keeping the Islanders just 2 points out of a playoff spot with 5 games remaining.
Bonus Stats of the Game, from Erik Hornick on the Yahoo Islanders Fan Group
Sad but true. No goalie other than Rick DiPietro has won a game for the Islanders after February 1st since the lockout. (Dunham’s last win this season was on February 1st, and neither Snow nor Dubie won a game after in February, March or April last season.) Dunham has lost all five games that he has appeared in during March, allowing 24 goals. He has played only one complete game (the 8-5 debacle in Florida), as he has been pulled three times and replaced DiPietro in his first appearance. He has allowed 24 goals in only 211 minutes played — a goals against average of 6.83! To put Dunham’s numbers in perspective, the last time that the Islanders allowed more than 24 goals in a 4-game period (240minutes) was in October 1990 and the last time that they scored more than 24 goals in a 4-game period was in January 1993. Injury Update: Oh by the way, Ryan Smyth missed last night’s game too with a leg injury. No word on Smyth or DP’s availability for tonight. I will update if I read anything. Oh wait, I just read this on NewYorkIslanders.com Only Smyth is a possibility to play tonight among the players who missed Friday’s game.
