1. The Isles closed within 4 points of now-29th place Tampa Bay as they won home games on consecutive days for only the third time in franchise history. (It happened on Thanksgiving weekend in both 2001 and 2006.)
2. All of the goals went into one net, as three 2nd period Islander tallies off-set Phoenix scores in both the first and third period.
3. The three Islander goal scorers: Tambellini, Bailey and Okposo have a combined 22 goals this season. They entered this year with 6 combined (4 for Tambellini and 2 for Okposo).
...and a few more...
4. Danis made 40 saves to tie his career high. Since the All-Star break, Danis is 7-5-1 with a 2.00 GAA and a .939 save percentage. Danis hasn't played enough to qualify as a league leader in save percentage (needs to appear in 1/3 of a team's minutes and he's just shy), but if he did, he would he tied for 2nd with Tomas Vokoun for the season (.926; Tim Thomas leads at .932)
5. Nine Islanders had points on the three goals; 15 Islanders had at least one point on the weekend.
6. The Isles win on the back-end of back-2-backs for the first time since Thanksgiving weekend (0-5-2). They finish the homestand 4-1-1, including 4-1-0 in the last 5. The Islekids are 10-8-2 in their last 20 and have not gone more than 2 games without a point in that stretch.
7. The Isles don't play Sunday home games very often (this was the first of 2 on the season), so it's not surprising that this is their first Sunday home win since beating Tampa 4-0 on March 21, 2004 (2 losses, an OT loss, and a tie).
8. Josh Tordjman made his NHL debut in goal for Phoenix, stopping 23 shots. Scott Upshall and Shane Doan had the Coyote goals, who were playing their 8th game on Long Island since Doan (and the Coyotes) relocated from Phoenix. The Isles won the first two, tied the second two, lost the next two and have won the last two.
9. The Isles out-hit Phoenix 36-30, with every Islander credited with at least one. Phoenix outshot the ISles 42-26, with Michalek and Upshall combining for 15 of them.
10. Up next: the Isles begin a 6 game road trip in Toronto on Tuesday at 7:30. The Isles have only one road win since winning in Montreal 15 weeks ago (1-19-1) and completed February 0-6 on the road. 10 of the final 16 are on the road. The first 4 of the 6 games are all against original 6 teams --19th time in club history, tying record for consecutive games against Original 6 teams. The Isles trail the season series with Toronto 4 points to 3, having gone 1-1-1 against the Leafs.
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982.
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