"The Skinny"
By Eric Hornick
Game 14
Philadelphia 2, Islanders 1
Andreas Nodl broke a 1-1 tie with a rebound off the mask of Dwayne Roloson with 5:25 to play as the Philadelphia Flyers handed the Islanders their seventh straight loss, defeating New York 2-1 before 13,078 at the Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders have not led at any point during the streak.
Flyers Score First
Two Islander nemeses, Mike Richards and Chris Pronger, combined for the only goal of the opening period, with Richards extending his point streak to six straight games by recording his third goal of the season. The Isles are 0-7-2 this season when allowing the opening goal. The Isles have now been outscored 16-6 in the first period.
Isles Get Even
The Islanders had three power plays in the middle period, and they cashed in on the final one, as Matt Moulson scored for the second straight game. It was the 6th goal of the season for Moulson, who led the Islanders with 30 last season. His six goals have come in three separate two-game goal scoring streaks. James Wisniewski and Goalkeeper Roloson earned assists on the play. Wisniewski leads the NHL in both power play assists (9) and power play points (11). It was Roloson's 13th career assist, but his first as an Islander. The Isles dominated parts of the middle period, outshooting the Flyers 14-5.
Even Late, But Then…
The game remained 1-1 through most of the third period, but with under six minutes to play, Eric Wellwood's rising shot hit Dwayne Roloson in the mask and Nodl was there to tap-in the rebound. It's the first NHL point for the 20 year-old Wellwood. The Islanders pressure late in the game and even had a power play for the final 66 seconds but could not get the game even. 2-1 Flyers. Final.
Home and Road
The two teams have had opposite schedules; while both teams played their 14th game, it was the Isles 5th home game and the Flyers 5th road game. Philadelphia improves to 9-4-1, 3-1-1 on the road. The Isles are 4-8-2, 2-2-1 at home.
Unbalanced Schedule
This is the latest in Islander history that they played their fifth home game by both number of games and the calendar. Four previous times the Isles opened with seven of their first 11 on the road and played their fifth home game in game 12. In 2000, the Butch Goring –led squad played their fifth home game in game 12, and it came on November 5th.
In the Nets
Sergei Bodrovsky made 30 saves for the Flyers in recording his sixth straight win; he's now 8-2-0 on the season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first Flyers rookie to win at least six straight games in a quarter-century. Darren Jensen won seven straight decisions in 1985-86. Jensen went 15-9-1 that season (following the death of Pelle Lindbergh), but never played in the NHL again. Lindbergh, who won seven straight Flyers games in 1982-83, is the only other Flyer rookie goaltender to win every game in a Flyer winning streak of at least six games.
Dwayne Roloson, playing for the second straight game, finished with 23 saves. His record dropped to 2-5-0 despite his goals against average falling to 2.43.
Power Plays
The Isles connected with the man advantage for the third straight game, going 1-6 on the power play; the Isles also killed both Flyer opportunities. The Isles have scored only six goals in the last five games, with three coming on power plays. (A 3-5 shorthanded penalty shot goal by Frans Nielsen in Philadelphia and even strength goals by Matt Martin vs Montreal and Michael Grabner in Ottawa were the others.) The Isles have now had 70 power plays on the season and have been shorthanded only 60 times.
In the Circle
There were 54 draws, and the Isles won 37 of them (69%). Frans Nielsen has a memorable night in the circle, winning all 12 draws he took. Zenon Konopka had another strong game on draws, winning 8 of 11. Mike Richards (2 of 12) and Claude Giroux (3 of 13) had tough night for Philadelphia.
Feisty, but not Fight-y
The Flyers out-hit the Isles 25-24. Darren Powe had six hits to lead the Flyers while Matt Martin led all players with 8 hits. Martin now has been credited with a team-high 36 hits, despite playing in just six games. One week after the most –penalized game for the Islanders (73 minutes) this century, the teams combined for just eight minor penalties.
Almost to the End
This was the 12th game in a 15 game stretch that finds the Islanders playing 12 on the road and only three at home. After going 3-1-1 in the first five, they have now lost seven straight. The Isles will now head to California for three games to complete this stretch.
Seventh Heaven?
The Isles were 4-1-2 in the first seven games of the season, but are 0-7-0 in the last seven, matching a seven game streak last January 23rd-February 6th.
Missing Men
Mark Streit, Kyle Okposo and Andrew MacDonald remain out for extended periods while Milan Jurcina is out with a hamstring injury. Trent Hunter (foot) returned to the lineup; PA Parenteau was a healthy scratch.
3 or Less
The Isles have been held to three goals or fewer in nine straight games (2-7-0) since tallying five against Colorado on October 16. It's the longest that the team has gone without scoring four goals since a 10-game stretch last January 21st- February 10th.
3 or More
The Isles allowed only two goals for the first time since their 3-2 overtime win in Tampa.
Season Series Stats
The Flyers lead the season series 2 games to none. The teams will next meet at the Coliseum for a December 5th matinee. The Flyers have dominated the series between the teams in recent years, with the Isles now 1-14-3 in the last 18 meetings, including 1-5-2 in the last eight games on Long Island.
Happy Anniversary
9 years ago today (November 6, 2001), Chris Osgood shutout the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0, raising the Islanders' record to 11-1-1-1 (24 points). It's the most points through 14 games in Islanders history.
Up Next
Wednesday, November 10th- Islanders @ Anaheim 10:00pm
[MSG+ (Islanders pre-game follows the Devils game), WRHU 88.7FM]
The Islanders begin a 3-games in 4-days trip to California on Wednesday night at Honda Center, with the first of two meetings this season with the Anaheim Ducks.
The Ducks won last season's meeting 5-4 on a Saku Koivu overtime goal. With the Isles looking to break a losing streak, Honda Center might be the place to do it – the Isles have earned at least one point in ten of their 11 visits to Anaheim (5 wins, 3 ties, an overtime loss and a shootout loss). In fact, the Isles have never lost on the road to Anaheim by more than one goal – the Ducks' sole regulation win was by a 2-1 score on November 19, 2000. Teemu Selanne had the winning goal in that game.
Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources.
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