Stat Trick: Isles 3, Sharks 2

If you're going to attend one Islander game next season, I'd pick the President's Day matinee. After last year's thriller against Pittsburgh, the Isles cam through with a huge third period to beat San Jose today. On to the trick:

1. Freddy Meyer now has 2 game winning goals in three games. Prior to Thursday, only Brian Curran had played more games in an Islander uniform without scoring a goal. Meyer also has a three game point streak, and along with Aaron Johnson, was a +3 today.

2. Let's put the comeback in perspective: San Jose had allowed fewer goals on the road than any team in the NHL and was 22-0-2 when leading after two periods, and they expanded the lead to 2-0 before the comeback. The one game Nabokov didn't play in was one of their two ot/so losses. The Isles are now 3-21-3 when trailing after two periods, meaning they've earned 9 points when trailing after 40 minutes. (The Isles are 19-0-1 when leading after two periods)

3. Joe Thornton had SJ's second goal -- he has more points than any NHL player since the 2002-03 season and more points than any player who had not turned 27 before the start of the season. Thornton however was beaten on 11 of 14 faceoffs by Josef Vasicek including two draws in the final 16 seconds.

and a few more...

4. The Islanders had a major power play for the second straight game after not having a major pp in the previous 58 games.

5. It was the Sharks' first visit to Long Island since October 20, 2001 and the Isles first home-ice win over San Jose since February 17 1996.

6. The Islanders have won 4 straight games for the second time this season and have their first five-game point streak (4-0-1) since Feb 19 -Mar 1, 2007. The Isles will head to Washington looking for their first five game winning streak since winning the final six games of 2003. (Both stats single season-- the Isles won their final four games of last season and their first two games of this season)

7. Rick DiPietro has a four game winning streak for the first time since last February. Back-up Wade Dubielewicz had two separate 4-game winning streaks in that period.

8. The Isles finish the season 2-2-1 against the Pacific (all at home) and 3-3-4 against the Western Conference. The Isles went 4-3-3 last season and 6-3-1 in 2005-06 against the West.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.