The Skinny: Montreal 5, Isles 3

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 28

Canadiens 5, Isles 3

Former Islander Petteri Nokelanien scored the winning goal with 6:15 to play as the Montreal Canadiens broke a 4-game home losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Islanders in front of a sellout crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre.  The Islanders are winless in three straight games (0-1-2).

The Scoring:

First Period:

7:50 NYI Matt Moulson Assist: P.A. Parenteau

9:15 MON Andrei Kostitsyn Assists: Tomas Plekanec, Tomas Kaberle

13:28 MON Mathieu Darche Assists: Petteri Nokelainen, Yannick Weber

2nd Period No scoring

3rd Period

0:31 MON Erik Cole (PP) Assists: David Desharnais, P.K. Subban

5:18 NYI Josh Bailey Assists: Brian Rolston, Mike Mottau

11:28 NYI John Tavares Assists: P.A. Parenteau, David Ullstrom

13:45 MON Petteri Nokelainen Assists: Lars Eller, Michael Cammalleri

19:09 MON Hal Gill (EN) Assists: David Desharnais, Max Pacioretty

The Skinny:

Matt Moulson's goal was his team-leading 15^th, while PA Parenteau is the first Islander to 20 assists.  His 24 points matches John Tavares for the team lead.  Nokelainen's winning goal was his 2^nd of the season and second in eight career games against the Islanders, the team that drafted him 16^th overall in 2004; both goals have been game-winners. Al Montoya played in his 9th straight game for the Isles. Mike Cammelleri recorded his 400^th career point on the winning goal. Erik Cole had a third period power play goal for Montreal; he also has six shots on goal and 6 hits.

The Shots

The Isles outshot Montreal 7-6 in the first period and 15-8 in the third.  The Canadiens had a 15-10 advantage in the middle session but were stoned in the session by Montoya.

First Goal Not Enough

The Isles are now 7-3-3 when scoring the first goal as they scored first but lost for the second consecutive game.  Their only previous regulation loss when scoring the first goal was on October 22^nd in Florida.

No Goals for Defense

The Isles defense was held without a goal, ending a four game streak, the longest since a similar streak March 10-17, 2007.  The Isles "D" had scored only three times in the first 23 games.

A Point for Mottau

Mike Mottau earned an assist on the Bailey goal.  It was his 50^th career assist, and his first point in 34 games, dating back to October 21, 2010.

Parenteau and Moulson Close in On League Leaders

Only 10 players have more assists than PA Parenteau (20).  Henrik Sedin leads the NHL with 25 assists.

Only 7 players have more goals than Matt Moulson (15).  Milan Michalek leads the NHL with 19 goals.

Friends, Friends, Friends

Moulson now has 15 goals on the season; John Tavares has earned assists on twelve of them.  He has now been on-ice for 39 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 28 of them, dating back to Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa.  Moulson's goal was his 76^th with the Islanders.  He is now halfway to a third consecutive 30-goal season; no Islander since Ziggy Palffy has accomplished that feat.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 9-13-6 overall and 3-6-3 away from the Coliseum. The loss ended a four-game road point streak (3-0-1).

Les Habitants are 13-11-7 overall and 5-5-6 at home on the road.  Montreal is 3-0-3 in their last six games, including three shootout losses in that stretch.

In the Nets

Al Montoya made 24 saves.  He is now 5-5-3 on the season.  Montoya has appeared in nine straight games, going 3-3-2 with 1 "save'. 

Carey Price made 29 saves for Montreal as he improves 12-8-7 on the season.  It was his 110^th win on the season, tying Rogatien Vachon for 11^th place on the all-time Canadiens list.     

Power Plays

The Islanders were 0-2 on the power play while the Canadiens were 1-4.  The Isles have scored on the power play in five of the last seven games (7-31 22.6%).  The Isles have killed 22-26 (84.6%) over the last seven games,

They Said It

Montoya on the winning goal: "I couldn't see it. It was off the bar and in. We did a great job of coming back in that game, but I'm not going to make an excuse. That was a great shot off the post and (I had) no eyes on it."

They Tweeted It

@ArponBasu (Managing Editor on LHN.com – the French version of NHL.com) Josh Bailey pulls out his second killer toe drag of the night, this time results in a goal, his 3rd of the season and first in 7 games

The Coach

"I thought we played a pretty good game…I liked the efforts from the guys…we could have gotten more pucks to the net."

Leading Ice Men

Travis Hamonic led the Islanders with 23:53; PK Subban led all players with 26:21.

Third Periods

The Isles were outscored 3-2 in the third period (5-2 over the lead two games).  The Isles have been outscored 34-16 overall in the third period (27-14 excluding empty nets).  In the first two periods, the Isles have been outscored 53-48.

61 to Go

The Isles have scored 9,939 goals in their history (excluding 39 shootout winners), leaving the club 61 shy of 10,000.

1 Over .500

The Islanders drop to one game over all-time NHL .500 (1322-1321-427 in 3,070 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.

Score 3, but Lose (Again)

For the second straight game, three goals weren't enough for a point. The Isles have scored 27  over  the last eight games (4-2-2) after scoring only 15 in the previous nine games (1-6-2).  The Isles have scored 35 goals in their nine wins (3.89 per game) and 30 goals in their other 19 games (0-13-6; 1.58 per game).  In their 13 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 14 goals (1.07 per game).

In the Circle

The Islanders won 23 of 49 (47%) face-offs. Marty Reasoner won 5 of 8 for the Isles.

Multi-Point Men

Parenteau had two assists for the Isles; Nokelainen had a goal and an assist while David Desharnies contributed two helpers for Montreal, who had 13 players record points.

Missing Men

Nino Niederreiter (concussion symptoms) and Rick DiPietro (groin) were scratched. Andrew MacDonald, Jay Pandolfo, Marc Eaton, and Mark Katic are on injured reserve.  The Isles have lost 120 man-games to injury so far this season.  Kevin Poulin and Micheal Haley have been returned to Bridgeport.

Ironmen

Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 192 games since joining the team. Travis Hamonic has now played 90 NHL games (all consecutive); he has the longest consecutive game streak on defense for the Isles. 

Season Series Stats

The season series is even, one game to one (two points to two). The Islanders had won the past three games between the teams, who play again in February on Long Island and on St. Patrick's Day in Montreal.  The Islanders have sold out their last 14 games in Montreal.

Happy Anniversary

28 years ago tonight: December 13, 1983.   Butch Goring scored four goals as the Islanders pounded the Edmonton Oilers 8-5 at the Nassau Coliseum.

Overall, the Isles are 7-8-4 on this date including a Garth Snow shut out of Atlanta eight years ago.

On The Farm

Bridgeport has dropped three straight and is 11-11-3-1 on the season.  The Sound Tigers begin a three game in three days weekend on Friday in Hartford against the Connecticut Whale.

Up Next

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15th DALLAS AT ISLANDERS 7:00PM
[MSG+ (Islanders Game Night at 6:30pm), WRHU (88.7FM)]

The Islanders look to sweep the season series with Dallas as they entertain the Stars on Thursday.  The Isles, behind four Matt Moulson goals, defeated the Stars 5-4 in Dallas on December 3^rd.

The Isles are 3-1-2 in their last six at home against Dallas, although they are 0-1-2 in the last three, including a shootout loss in last season's opener.

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