Jamie Benn and the Stars came to the Coliseum after a shoot out win in New Jersey and Chad Johnson got the start. I found that surprising, but you do want to ride the hot hand if you can.
Just as he did the game prior, Johnson showed he could make a huge save with his left big toe as he stretched out to the post on Patrick Eaves. Then before he could get another whack at it, he covered. Not yet guys.
With 14:49 left in the first, Anders Lee got one behind Lindback with a tip in of a Thomas Hickey shot. Cory Conacher showed off his speed on a breakaway, but was stripped of the puck before he could get a shot off. His speed is one of the reasons he is on that top line, much to many fans’ dismay.
The Stars evened up the score when Johnson thought he had the puck in his glove but it had squirted out and Fiddler skated in to swat it in the net. Johnson didn’t know what hit him.
Strait was called for the first penalty of the game for hooking, but the Isles managed to kill it off with the Stars getting in two shots on Johnson. But as soon as Strait exited the box, Thomas Hickey took up residency in it. Interference they said.
With less than two minutes left in the first Kulemin scored his first goal as an Islander on a unassisted shorty giving the Isles the lead. For that, he got to speak with Shannon Hogan during the first intermission. Now, it seems like his helmet may be a bit too tight as his forehead looked as if it was sunburned. Shannon asked him about the first period, when it looked as if they really “hit the ground running.”
“We tried to get on them right away, they played yesterday, they might be a little bit tired. Tried to pressure the puck and don’t let them have free time to skate around with the puck.” To their credit, this was not a team that seemed one bit tired.
Stan Fischler said the fans were so into the game in the Coliseum it was electrifying. But Stan didn’t like the refs not calling a penalty against the stars when Hickey was tossed against the boards. This is not the first time the officiating has come into question this season. Is it just that it’s still early or is there a deep seated issue within officiating?
Dominik & LHHFriends @LHHockey 8m8 minutes ago The @NHL officiating tonight in #Isles vs Stars compared to Thursday's Isles vs Bruins...it's like completely different sports.
This seems to be a good topic for an off day.
Less than two minutes into the second Brock Nelson got a rebound in front of the net passed Lindback giving the Isles a two goal lead. That didn’t sit well with Dallas’ Benn brothers.
Matt Martin was pulled down behind the Stars net drawing a penalty on Horcoff for interference. For the first few seconds, it looked like a Stars power play. Newsday’s Art Staple called that power play “Ugly.” It was.
Segan banked the puck off the post and behind Johnson to come within one goal. That gave them a little more confidence and Casey Cizikas gave them another power play. Were the Isles trying to give the game away? Seemed that way as Jason Spezza scored a power play goal to even it up at three. According to Butch, both goals on Johnson were shot high, so that may be his flaw. Just like Halak’s flaw is his blocker side.
It didn’t seem like the Isles wanted to play five on five, because Leddy then sat in the box for tripping. Luckily the Stars didn’t’ get any shots off on the power play. But some bad luck gave the Stars their go-ahead goal with less than five minutes left of the second. Johnson hung his head and recovered quickly. Visnovsky fired a rocket less than a minute later that sailed over Lindback and into the net.
Matt Martin was not having a good night and took a hooking penalty with six seconds left of the second period. I can’t imagine Capuano was pleased with his game tonight.
The third period began with Matt Martin watching from the box. As the score was tied at four, Chad Johnson was back in net for the third. There was no reason to put Halak in goal. Matt Martin was sprung from the box and grabbed the puck only to have it stripped from his stick and brought right back to Johnson. How much ice time would Martin see in the third after all this? A lot.
Dallas had two golden opportunities, but Johnson gloved the puck and stopped the play. He did not want to give up the next goal. Lindback was taking pucks off his mask and I wondered how he wasn’t trying to get a whistle. Midway through the third, Johnson made a great glove save to keep the score tied, but he also made a mental mistake when he was caught out of position leaving the net wide open. He was very lucky.
Kulemin and Nielsen with a two on one opportunity saw Nielsen shoot high, hit the crossbar and in. Patience paid off for Frans Nielsen. Kulemin got his 200th NHL point in this game. He probably didn’t expect that.
The crowd was trying to will the Isles to a win as the “Let’s Go Islanders” chant almost drowned out the announcers.
Somehow Nielsen had another two on one chance, this time with Grabovsky. Nielsen got the puck over Lindback’s right shoulder this time with 4:51 left of the third, but 23 seconds later, the Stars got one back on a bounce in front of Johnson and Jack Capuano became animated on the bench.
As the clock wound down, the Stars became aggressive and tried to pull Lindback to give them the extra skater, but the Isles kept them busy. With only 45.4 seconds left, they managed to get their goalie on the bench trying to even up the score.
With 12 seconds left, the Isles iced the puck and the clock went backwards as they added three seconds to the clock. Panic? No. Nielsen managed the hat trick according to the fans. The clock almost disagreed with .1 second left, but it counted and it was a 7-5 win for the Isles.
Kulemin was the third star, Spezza got the second star and the crowd booed. Frans Nielsen was the first star of the game and well deserved. “I never thought I was going to get a hat trick. I didn’t even know if it counted. I found out when I went back there.”
And so continues the Islanders point acquisition.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»