The Skinny: Isles 3, Winnipeg 2 (SO)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 31

Isles 3, Jets 2 (shootout)

The Islanders completed a sweep of the "Minny-Winny" portion of their road trip with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets in front of 15,004 at the MTS Centre.  The Isles are 5-1-1 in their last seven road games as they win consecutive games, both in shootouts, for the first time since 2006.

The Scoring:

First Period:

8:17 EV NYI P.PARENTEAU(5) M.MOULSON(10) J.TAVARES(16)

18:00 EV WPG N.ANTROPOV(5) J.ODUYA(7)

Second Period:

3:53 EV NYI  M.GRABNER(10) T.HAMONIC(6) A.MACDONALD(1)

9:46 EV WPG  A.LADD(11) N.ANTROPOV(13) K.WELLWOOD(13)

Third Period: None

Overtime : None

The Shootout:

WPG: Wheeler (NG), Wellwood (NG).  NYI: Parenteau (G), Nielsen (G)

The Skinny: 

Michael Grabner is used to scoring in Winnipeg, tallying 68 goals in 180 games as a member of the Manitoba Moose.  Manitoba native Travis Hamonic assisted on the goal.  The Islanders number one line of Tavares/Moulson/Parenteau combined for nine shots in the first period and 15 shots in the game.  Parenteau, who had 6 shots in Minnesota, had five in this game.  He had not had five shots in any previous game this season.  It was the first overtime game played in Winnipeg this season, as well as the first NHL shootout ever contested in Manitoba.

The Shots

The Isles outshot the Jets 13-8, in the first period but the Jets outshot the Isles 11-9 in the second period, 14-9 in the third period and 5-2 in overtime.

Extending the Streak

The Islanders have scored first in each of their last seven road games.  Overall, the Isles are 9-3-3 when they score first.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 11-14-6 overall and are 5-6-3 on the road. The Isles are 5-1-1 in their last seven road games and have earned 13 points on the road this season.  It's their best road record through 14 games since they were 7-6-1 in the first 14 road games of 2006-07.

Winnipeg is 15-13-5 overall and 11-5-1 at home. The Jets had gone 8-2-0 in their prior ten home games.

In the Nets

Al Montoya made his 11^th start in the last 13 games but left after being run by Evander Kane late in the second period. Montoya faced 19 shots, and made 17 saves.

Evgeni Nabokov made 19 saves to record his third career relief win (3/2/2000 vs. Nashville; 10/24/2000 vs. Carolina, both as a Shark.)  He is 20-21 in his career in shootouts.

Ondrej Pavelec made 31 saves for Winnipeg.  He has stopped 65 of 67 Islander shots this season.

Sixth Switch

This is 6th time this season that Isles have used multiple goalies.

·         Oct 27 at Pittsburgh:  Nabokov /DiPietro

·         Nov 7 at Boston:  Nabokov/Montoya

·         Nov 17 vs. Montreal:  Nabokov/DiPietro

·         Nov 19 vs. Boston: DiPietro/Nilsson

·         Dec 3 at Dallas:  DiPietro /Montoya

·         Dec 20 at Winnipeg: Montoya/Nabokov

Only Tampa has changed goalies as frequently -- also six times.  However, the Lightning have used only two goalies this season while the Isles have used five.

Five Shootout Wins – Five Different Goalies

The Isles have won five shootouts in 2011 (three last season and two this season).  All five wins have come on the road.  The Isles have used five different goaltenders in those shootout wins:

·         10-Feb-11 @ Montreal  -Koskinen

·         15-Feb-11 @ Ottawa  - Lawson

·         19-Mar-11 @ Florida - DiPietro

·         17-Dec-11 @ Minnesota - Montoya

·         20-Dec-11 @ Winnipeg - Nabokov

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-2 on the power play while the Jets did not have a power play.  The Isles are 0-9 on the power play over the last four games and 1-22 (4.5%) over the last seven games. The Isles have killed 28-33 (84.8%) over the last ten games.

No Advantage for Jets

Winnipeg has not had a power play in either game against the Islanders this season.  It's the first time that an Islander opponent has had no power plays twice in the same season since at least 1987.   The Islanders had been shorthanded in ever road game they had played since November 10, 2001 in Montreal.  It's the first time since 2001-02 that the Isles played two games in a season in which they were not shorthanded.

It's the eighth time this season that a team has not had a power play in a game; however, Winnipeg is only the second team to do so at home (Vancouver – no power plays vs. Chicago on November 16).

#295 for Nabby

The win was the 295^th of Nabokov's career, passing Mike Liut for 27^th place on the all-time list.  He is one career win behind Ron Hextall and is five wins shy of becoming the 26^th goalie in NHL history with 300 career wins.

They Said It

Travis Hamonic:  "(Nabby) gave us a chance to win.  He was stellar in the shootout."

They Tweeted It

@StapeNewsday  #Isles cap off tremendous first 8:17 with Parenteau goal. They even controlled play 4 on 4. Crowd quiet except for the Hamonic fans.

@StapeNewsday II Both Al Montoya and David Ullstrom cleared to fly home with #Isles tonight.

The Coach

"We beat two pretty good teams on the road…  (Nabby) was real good."

Leading Ice Men

Travis Hamonic led the Islanders with a career-high 28:56; he was +1 with 1 assist – he also had five hits and seven blocked shots. Tobias Enstrom played 23:50 for Winnipeg.

Will Giants-Jets be as Hard-Hitting as Isles-Jets?

The Jets out-hit the Isles 28-25; Matt Martin, Tim Wallace and Hamonic each had five hits for the Isles.

Third Periods

The third period was scoreless; the Isles have been outscored 8-2 in the third period over the last four games and have been outscored 37-17 overall in the third period (30-15 excluding empty nets); the 17 goals scored are the fewest of any team in the third period.  In the first two periods, the Isles have been outscored 56-53.

56 to Go

The Isles have scored 9,944 goals in their history (excluding 41 shootout winners), leaving the club 56 shy of 10,000.

Two over .500

The Islanders move two games over all-time NHL .500 (1324-1322-427 in 3,073 games).  They have been below NHL .500 for only 1 day since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

Scoring

The Isles have scored 32 goals over the last 11 games (6-3-2) after scoring only 15 in the previous nine games (1-6-2).  The Isles have scored 38 goals in their 11 wins (3.45 per game) and 32 goals in their other 20 games (0-14-6; 1.60 per game).  In their 14 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 16 goals (1.14 per game).

Back-to-Back Extra Time Points

The Isles are 5-2 in one-goal games decided in regulation but are 2-0-6 in the eight games that have gone beyond regulation.   It's the second time in club history (March 7-10, 2006) that the Islanders have won consecutive games, both in shootouts.  The Isles are 39-30 all-time in shootouts.

Head of the Class

John Tavares' assists gives him 147 career points, three more than Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.  No other player in that draft is anywhere close—Evander Kane is third, with 94 points.

Shootout Specialist

Frans Nielsen scored a shootout goal for the second straight game.  Nielsen is 18-31 in career shootout attempts (58.1%).  Six of his shootout goals have been game-deciding goals.  Nielsen ranks #1 in NHL history among skaters that have attempted more than 10 shootout attempts with his 58.1% success rate.
Nielsen ranks #2 in NHL history among skaters that have attempted more than 12 shootout attempts with his 58.1% success rate.

All-time Shootout Leaders (greater than 12 attempts)

1.  Slava Kozlov 27/46 58.7%

2.  FRANS NIELSEN  18/31 58.1%

All-time Shootout Leaders (greater than 10 attempts)

1.  Slava Kozlov 27/46 58.7%

2.  Trevor Linden 7/12 58.3%

3.  FRANS NIELSEN  18/31 58.1%

Shootout Specialist II

PA Parenteau is now 6-13 in his career in the shootout (46.2%).  He has scored four game-deciding goals.

In the Circle

The Islanders won 34 of 60 (57%) face-offs. John Tavares won 16 of 24 and Marty Reasoner won six of ten.

Missing Men

Marc Eaton, Brian Rolston (concussion) and Steve Staios (upper body injury) were scratched.  Jay Pandolfo, Rick DiPietro, and Mark Katic are on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 139 man-games to injury so far this season.  

Ironmen

Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 195 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 93 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles. 

Season Series Stats

The Islanders even the season series one game each (Winnipeg has earned three points to the Islanders' two). It was the Islanders' first visit to Winnipeg since March 9, 1996. The Islanders will return to Winnipeg on Valentine's Day and then host the Jets in the home finale on April 5th.

Happy Anniversary

28 years ago tonight (12-20-83):  The Isles score 11 goals for the first time in their history -- and only time at the Coliseum, pounding the Penguins 11-3.  (They would do it again in Toronto about 2 1/2 months later (March 3, 1984).   Nine Isles had goals that night (Bryan Trottier and John Tonelli each had 2) and 16 players had at least one point.

Overall, the Isles are 9-6-1 on this date.  They had lost three-straight games on this date dating back to a 4-3 win over Boston in 1997.

On The Farm

Bridgeport has dropped six straight and is 11-14-3-1 on the season.  The Sound Tigers are off until Boxing Day, when they'll entertain the Baby Rangers (Connecticut Whale) while the Isles are visiting their parents at Madison Square Garden.

Up Next

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22nd ISLANDERS AT RANGERS 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 6:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]

The Islanders make their first visit to the transformed Madison Square Garden as they battle the rival Rangers for the third time this season. 

The teams have split a pair of Coliseum meetings this season, but the Rangers have had the Isles number recently in Manhattan, winning the last four games by a combined 20-5 score.

And Finally…

To those who are observing, Happy Chanukah!

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources.  Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick