1.. Once again, the Isles started well, as Richard Park opened the scoring midway through the first. Park now has two goals on the season: one in the final game of October and one in the final game of November. Watch out Ottawa on New Year's Eve! It was Park's third career goal agaisnt the Devils; the other two came on Easter Sunday 2007 in a playoff-clinching perfoirmance for the Islanders. Tim Jackman assisted on the goal--his first assist of the season. Jackman's assist leaves Jerrod Smithson, David Koci and Brad Richardson as the players who have appeared in the most NHL Games this season (25) without recording an assist.
2. Mike Mottau and Brian Rolston scored in the second period to give New Jersey the lead. Mottau's goal was his first in 2009, and snapped a 68-game scoreless streak, dating back to New Year's Eve. It was the 6th goal in his 202 game NHL career.
3. The Devils blew the game open with three goals in a 2:02 stretch as Patrik Elias, Zach Parise and Rolston all scored. Elias added his second goal in the final minute to complete his second career 4-point game. Rolston also finished with four points. The Isles have now been outscored on the season 32-17 in the third period while the Devs have outscored their opponents 28-18 in the third period.
...a few more....
4. Sean Bergenheim also assisted on Park's goal, giving him four points in the last four games, but Trent Hunter's point streak ended at a career high of 9. Parise's goal extended his streak to ten games. He would have looked pretty good in orange, white and blue, wouldn't he? Kyle Okposo played in his 100th NHL game, but was -2.
5. The skating record book, Martin Brodeur, extended two NHL records, by winning his 571st game, and raising his minute total to 60,278:42. Brodeur, who is now eight games behind Patrick Roy's NHL record of 1,029 games played in goal, made 22 saves as he remains one shutout behind Terry Sawchuk's career record of 103. Marty Biron finished with 36 saves as once again the Islanders did not score when he played. Biron had allowed three goals or less in each of his last seven starts but is now 2-8-2 on the season.
6. The Islanders finish the month 6-6-2, which is hard to believe when you realize that the Isles were shutout in Buffalo on November 4, but had the lead at some point in all of the other thirteen games this month.
7. The Isles had only four shots in the third period, when they were outshot 16-4. Ignoring their strong performance in the third period against Pittsburgh, the Isles totaled nine third period shots in theirother three games this week.
8. The Devils scored twice on three opportunities in only 2:32 of power play; the Isles had killed 23 of 25 coming into the game. The Isles went 0-4 in 8:00 of power play time.
9. The Devils improve to 11-0-0 when they lead after two periods. New Jersey also remains a perfect 5-0-0 when leading after one period. The Isles, on the other hand, dropped to 5-4-3 when leading after one period. They are 8-1-3 when leading after two periods.
10. New Jersey leads the season series two games to none, and four points to zero. The Isles drop to 0-5 in their last five trips to Newark; they've scored just seven goals in the five games. The next three meetings of the season series are on Long Island, including two in a six-game span in January.
Up next: This is the first of five consecutive road games for the Isles. The trip continues on Thursday in Atlanta, with stops in Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Toronto also on this trip. The Islanders dominated the Thrashers 6-4 on November 7th at the Coliseum in the only previous meeting this season.
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick
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