Tag Archive for 'mike-dunham'
You could pretty much see this loss coming. Following Sunday’s big win over their rivals the NY Rangers - a game which they did not play well defensively, the Isles came out flat vs. the Ottawa Senators and lost 4-2. Was it the Rangers-hangover or just Ottawa? The Isles are 4-27-8 vs. Ottawa since 1996. That’s pretty awful.
Mike Dunham was in net and saw 17 shots in the first period while the Isles managed just 4. Dany Heatley started the scoring 5 minutes into the game and an Ottawa PP goal in the final 2 minutes left the Isles in a 2-0 hole after 1.
In the second, Andy Hilbert despite the many chances he’s had this season, finally found the back of the net for his first goal of the season in 26 games. That brought the Isles within 1 goal, but Martinek took a holding penalty late in the period and it took Ottawa all of 9 seconds to score their 2nd PP goal of the game for a 3-1 lead. The Ottawa goal was pretty sweet…tic-tac-toe, Spezza-Alfredsson-Corvo to the back of the net and Dunham had no chance. The Isles did mange to outshoot Ottawa in the 2nd, 14-10.
In the third, Blake netted his 15th goal of the season 6 minutes into the period to bring the Isles within 1 goal again. That’s as close as they would get, 6 minutes later Heatley scored his second of the night and Ottawa went on to win.
Penalties are still a problem for the Islanders. Ottawa was 2/4 on the man advantage while the Isles were 0-6.
Ugggly crowd at the Coliseum, announced at 8,000+ but the actual crowd was more like 5-6,000.
Video highlights from NHL.com
The shot parade against the Isles continues. After the Rangers fired 40+ on Sunday, Ottawa has 17 shots and a 2-0 lead after 1 period at the Coliseum tonight. Heatley and Spezza (powerplay) have the goals for Ottawa.
Dunham is in net tonight, as planned by Ted Nolan. What was NOT planned was Wade “Dooooobie” Dubielewicz being called up from Bridgeport to be the backup goaltender. From Yahoo Sports.
DiPietro, who was already slated to have the night off, didn’t dress for the game or sit on the bench. The Islanders would only say that he was out because of an undisclosed lower body injury.
Four road games, 7 points so far. The Islanders beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night. I think the other team said it best.
“[Dunham] stole the show,” said Panthers forward Chris Gratton, who had two prime scoring chances knocked away. “He played like a big goalie and didn’t give us much to shoot at. He played a heck of a game.”
Yashin and Blake both scored again and assisted on the other’s goal. Blake leads the team in goals, Yashin in points.
The Isles will wrap up the road trip vs. Toronto (11-6-4) Monday night. The team will be really rolling if they can beat a good Toronto team, and head home after a 4-0-1 road trip.
Video highlights from NHL.com
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,
Video highlights from NHL.com
- Isles announce cheap tix. Dust off your old college ID and pay just $16 and $19 for tickets. Offer valid on student and military ID’s, day of game only, at the Coliseum Box Office.
The offer is not valid for Ranger games, although I don’t see what the problem is - none of the Ranger fans are educated anyways.
- Mike Dunham featured on NHL.com.
“I wanted to be in the Northeast, near where I had played and near home,” says the 34-year-old goaltender, whose resume includes stints with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers. “I had played in New Jersey and with the Rangers, so I thought I’d give Long Island a try.”
- Evgeni Malkin makes his NHL debut tonight for the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the New Jersey Devils. Thursday night Evgeni and Sid the Kid come to the Coliseum, let’s hope we can draw more than 10,000 for those two.
- This game was on in HDTV last night, but you didn’t need HD to notice the Flyers suck. Buffalo sporting the classic blue and gold jerseys, ran the Flyers out of the building 9-1. Thomas Vanek had 2 goals and 2 assists, while Maxim Afinogenov had a goal and 4 assists. Video highlights from NHL.com (you’re gonna need a half hour to watch all the goals).
- Our friends at FauxRumors.com are running a couple of polls. “Who is the NHL’s most dangerous duo?” and “Who will win the NHL scoring title?”. Be sure to vote for the Yashin/Kozlov combo and Yashin in those polls…or not.
Monday night the Isles lost 2-1 to Nashville in a shootout. With DP out, Mike Dunham started his third straight game for the Islanders and played well with another 32 saves. Mike Sillinger scored (his 200th NHL goal) in the first for the Islanders and that was it. In the shootout, Satan and Kozlov were stopped while Steve Sullivan and Paul Kariya scored on Nashville’s first two attempts to win the game.
I didn’t watch the whole game, not much to say. The Isles did stay out of the penalty box (3 penalties) but couldn’t stay onsides. There were a lot of stoppages in this game, neither team could get much of a flow. Vokoun played well for Nashville, stopping Shawn Bates from point blank range late in overtime.
Announced crowd of 9.431…ewwww.
Shootout Results
1 NYI M. SATAN S 0 - 0
2 NSH S. SULLIVAN G 1 - 0
3 NYI V. KOZLOV S 1 - 0
4 NSH P. KARIYA G 2 - 0
Video Highlights from NHL.com
Big Islander Win on The Big Opening Night. Day started off with my flight from Jacksonville delayed by three hours. Still managed to make it to the tailgate by 5:30. By that time the lot was about a third full with plenty of tailgaters, lots of horn-honking and “Let’s Go Islander” chants. Couple beers and a burger later, the IslandersArmy crew headed to our seats in Section 320, about two rows below the obstructed view seats, so we were happy.
Night starts off with Sparky the Dragon descending from the rafters. Sparky is so lame. I’m a Jet fan and it bothers me that the Green Guys play their home games in Giant Stadium. Bothers me a lot. But how much lamer is it that the Islanders have to offer the mascot for the Arena Football League’s New York Dragons some part-time work to moonlight as their own mascot? As far as I know, there were never any Dragons on Long Island. And even if there were, they wouldn’t be skating on the ice cause one false breath and it would all be over. I just can’t stand historical inaccuracies is all. So Sparky is on the ice, joined by two Ice Girls who like they’re going clubbing and minutes later, the PA man says give a warm welcome to Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier. I was so fired up for this going in. I mean it was Bossy and Trots. I still get goosebumps watching highlights of these guys. They spoiled us all. So Bossy and Trots come out in suits. They look smooth. Have to say here that I was disappointed with the crowd. I understand people were still filing in and it was a Saturday so the place was packed with kids, but I would have liked a more vocal reaction. There were some “Bos-sey” chants and that was fun, but overall it was kind of weak.
Onto the game, Bruins were bringing it early and the Isles looked sluggish, playing back on their heals. There was pretty much no hitting at all in the first 10 minutes of the game. Mike Dunham started his second straight game and was easily the best Islander on the ice in the first period, making several nice saves during three consecutive Boston power plays. Glenn Murray managed to sneak one past Dunham at the end of the final power play, on what might have been the Bruins’ 100th shot of the period. We go into the first intermission Islanders down 1-0.
After that it was all good guys - Mike Sillinger got it started off with a goal off of a sweet pass from Satan, putting the puck off the left arm of the keeper and into the net. One of the Army’s favorites - Mighty Jason Blake - got his first of the year with a slap shot with about six minutes left in the period. As usual Blake skated hard all night, sometimes looking a bit out of control, but you have to love the guy’s effort. Blake started off the third period on a power play by putting in his own rebound. Some kid sitting near us threatened Blake that he better get a hat trick. The kid was about 8. The scoring closed when Blake fed a perfect cross-ice pass to Tom Poti who re-directed it past the keeper. After scoring, Poti remained bent over the keeper, looked like he was staring him down, maybe even talking smack. Not sure what the hell that was about, but I dug it. Isles controlled the puck for the rest of the way and easily won 4-1. Good times.
The highlight of the night, for me, was the second intermission when the team brought back Bossy and Trottier to take part in the shootout, with each guy shooting on behalf of a lucky fan. Trots went first, dressed in the home whites, and put three of his 15 shots in. I know these guys are older and wearing button-down shirts under too-big brand new jerseys, but this still shows how hard it is to shoot a puck from the blue line into a gap about four-pucks wide in the middle of the net. If Trots gets just three, it ain’t easy. So Bossy, wearing Blue jersey (thankfully not the Orange) goes next and while I love both of these guys, Bossy’s always been my favorite. When I was a kid I seriously expected him to score every time he touched the puck. Kind of like my wife expected me to gas up the car every time I walk by the damn thing. My only care was that the BossMan not embarass himself. I couldn’t handle that. I didn’t have to worry. I lost count as the cheers started getting louder and louder and Bossy started unleashing the shots faster and faster. I would say, being totally objective, that he must have scored 32 times on his 15 shots. I know the math doesn’t work out but just trust me on this. Bossy was great. The “Bos-sey” chants started when he had about five shots left, with even Trots participating by banging his stick on the ice to the rhythm of the chants. It was great. The Old First-Liners back on the ice, getting the crowd excited, cheering each other on, and putting the puck in the net.
[murph's comments] Attendance was 14,000 and change, first time since 1999 the Isles didn’t sell out the home opener. Not bad, but I thought there would be more of a walk up. The Mets playoff game probably didn’t help much. Islanders All-Time home opener record is 22-10-1-1.
The third jerseys are nice, I do actually like them…but on a night where Trotts and Boss are right there, do us all a favor and wear some classic blue next time. The other thought regarding jerseys we had last night was that anyone walking into the Coliseum at this point still wearing the fisherman jersey should receive a brand new jersey free of charge. Give ‘em the orange one, I don’t care, just kill off the fisherman for good. I don’t know what these people are thinking when they wear that debacle to the game. I’d show up buck nekkid before I showed up wearing %$@& Captain Ahab. Off to Jersey to see the Jets…
Video Highlights from NHL.com
The Islanders picked up their first victory of the 2006-07 NHL season last night with an exciting 5-4 shootout victory over the Anaheim Ducks last night. Mike Dunham was the hero for the Islanders in goal stopping 46 shots and 5 shootout attempts as well. With back to back games, the $67.5 million dollar man Rick DiPietro was given the night off.
“I felt relaxed out there,” Dunham said. “I certainly saw a lot of shots early and got into the flow of the game. I think that helped out a lot.”
The Islanders got off to a slow start in the first, trailing 1-0 and being outshot 17-5. They did manage to stay out of the penalty box for the most part, only taking one. The second period may have been the Islanders’ best 20 minutes of hockey in this young season. Three goals in a span of 1:46 gave the Islanders a 3-1 lead. First Mike York tied the game up with a one-timer for his first of the season, 43 seconds later Trent Hunter deflected a Brendan Witt shot for his first of the season, and finally a powerplay goal by Chris Simon just over a minute later gave the Isles a 2 goal lead. In addition, for the first time all season, they did not take a penalty in the period. Samuel Pahlsson’s second goal of the night for the Ducks midway through the second made the 3-2 Islanders after two periods.
In the third, the bad penalty taking Isles returned to the ice and almost let this game slip away with five penalties in the period. Two powerplay goals (C. Pronger, C. Perry) by the Ducks left the Isles’ trailing 4-3 with just over six minutes to play. A big, hard wristshot from Alexi Yashin tied the game at the 16:17 mark. With 21 shots in the period by the Ducks, Dunham came up with save after save, including a couple of big ones against Teemu Selanne from in close.
Overtime was mostly uneventful…well at least after the first 35 seconds while the Islanders were still killing off a Simon penalty from late in the third period. Dunham had two official saves in the OT session.
The Ducks elected to shoot first in the shootout, and Ryan Shannon beat Dunham low to his left with a nice fake. In round two Victor Kozlov who was 7 of 12 in shootouts with the Devils last year, abused J.S. Giguere with his long reach and a great move to tie it up at 1. The teams were tied after three rounds, and entered the sudden-death portion of the shootout. Finally in round 6, Mike York made a move to get Giguere to go down and the slipped the game-winner through Giguere’s five-hole as the goalie tried to move across the crease to cover the far post.
After the game the Islanders (1-3) headed home for a seven game home stand, including the home opener vs Boston (1-2) on Saturday night. IslandersArmy.com will be in the Coliseum parking lot around 4-5p for the tailgate. We’ll have pictures and a game report Saturday night.
Shootout Results
1 ANA R. SHANNON G 0 - 1
2 NYI M. SATAN S 0 - 1
3 ANA C. PRONGER S 0 - 1
4 NYI V. KOZLOV G 1 - 1
5 ANA A. MCDONALD S 1 - 1
6 NYI T. HUNTER S 1 - 1
7 ANA T. SELANNE S 1 - 1
8 NYI J. BLAKE S 1 - 1
9 ANA C. KUNITZ S 1 - 1
10 NYI A. YASHIN S 1 - 1
11 ANA R. NIEDERMAYER S 1 - 1
12 NYI M. YORK G 2 - 1
Video Highlights from NHL.com
Well that went well didn’t it? After all the changes, new players, and talk about this year’s Islanders being different and better than last year, the Isles took the ice for the season opener last night in Phoenix and got run out of the building 6-3. The $67.5 million dollar man was the first to leave - after two periods, 32 shots, 6 goals, and 2 penalties.
The game started off well for the Islanders, just 1:45 into the game Trent Hunter threw a long pass from the point to a streaking Miroslav Satan on the right side. The pass was almost broken up by the Coyotes’ defense, but it had enough on it to make it all the way to Satan. Satan did a great job adjusting to the pass and then roofed it over Cujo for a 1-0 Islanders lead.
It was all downhill from there as a steady stream of Islanders to and from the penalty box doomed the team. Five penalties in the first resulted in the Islanders being outshot 15-4 in the period and down 2-1. Things got worse in the second period when the Coyotes scored 4 goals (1 PP) within a 5 minute span. Four more Islander penalties during the period kept the team from gaining any momentum. DiPietro took his second penalty of the game late in the second period, and was replaced by Mike Dunham in the third. Dunham stopped 12 of 12 shots in relief. The Islanders ended up taking 11 penalties last night, giving up 2 PP goals and were outshot 44-29 in the game.
Here’s the official spin press release from NewYorkIslanders.com. “Made it respectable”? What a joke, who wrote this crap? Charles Wang himself?
The Islanders may not have won tonight’s game, but they did win the third period. The Islanders fell behind 6-1 after two periods, but made it respectable after Viktor Kozlov, playing in his first game as an Islander, scored two goals to make the final score 6-3 in the team’s season opener Thursday night at the Glendale Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
[Update 1] Well Wang and the Isles’ PR team might be satisfied with “respectable”, but it’s obvious Coach Nolan is not. From NewYorkIslanders.com Coach Nolan’s thoughts on last night’s game.
We competed too late
You’re not going to win in this league when you miss assignments and don’t battle for loose pucks. We didn’t compete until the third period and that’s not good enough. Not even close. We had a couple of bad breaks, goals that went off defensemen’s skates. But those are also the kids of breaks winning teams earn. I took Ricky out after the second period to keep him fresh for the rest of the trip, shake things up a bit and give Mike Dunham work. Rick will be back on. I’m not worried about him. I thought Dunham did a good job in a tough spot. We have a practice here in Arizona tomorrow afternoon and plenty of time to work on things.
With two solid wins versus the Rangers (2-1) and Devils (3-0) last weekend, the Islanders’ Preseason is over. Regular season NHL action starts up again tomorrow night - Buffalo @ Carolina, Ottawa @ Toronto and Dallas @ Colorado. Isles get started late Thursday night @ Phoenix.
Jason Blake led the team with 2 goals in 4 games, 8 other players had 1 goal. Alexi Yashin and Tom Poti led the team with 4 points.
Then of course there is the $67.5 million dollar man, who all eyes were on this preseason. Ricky and Mike Dunham’s stats are below. Ricky had a solid preseason with a GAA under 2.00 and a Save% above 90% to go with his 8 penalty minutes (which he was tied for most on the team with Zhitnik). Now can he do that over 60+ games? The saves, not the penalties that is. LCS Hockey has all the NHL Preseason stats here.
GOALTENDER GP MINS AVG W L OT EN SO GA SA SV% PIM
DiPietro, Rick 4 152 1.97 1 1 0 0 0 5 52 90.4 8
Dunham, Mike 3 88 4.09 1 1 0 0 0 6 36 83.3 0
TEAM TOTALS 4 240 2.75 2 2 0 0 0 11 88 87.5 8
OPPONENT TOTALS 4 240 2.50 2 2 0 0 0 10 121 91.7
