If not for Casey Cizikas and the grinding line is on, this game would have been another Isles loss.

It was going so well. it was it was a three to zippo lead and the Panthers were given two minutes to score three goals. I don't even know how that happened. But it looked like a typical islander defensive breakdown.

Sadly Matt Moulson looked like he was skating with lead shorts and Kyle Okposo, playing more defense missed an empty net at the end which would have given the Isles the insurance goal in the last two minutes of the game.

Colin McDonald was given a two year extension today and there is talk that the Isles are discussing extension for Visnovsky and others. With only twenty one games left, thoughts have turned to next season.

But the Isles are still in the race for this season. However, if they don't play every game as if their lives depend on it, they'll be out of the race before they know it.

How often do the Isles win when John Tavares doesn't score a point of some sort? Not often. The Isles goals tonight came from Okposo, Martinek and Boyes before the Cats decided to come to life and even up the score in the third.

Oh Wait! Did JT have an assist on Boyes' goal? Why yes, yes he did. And there you have another example of the power of JT.

All the penalties came in the first period with one tripping call against Reasoner and two against Boulton and Parros for fighting. After that, it seems the refs lost their whistles.

The Islanders doled out 40 hits to the Panther's 26 with Martin dishout out eight of them. But he didn't have to drop the mitts because after the first period fight with Boulton and Parros, that was all that needed to be said.

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