|
UNIONDALE, N. nfl jerseys china .Y. -- The New York Islanders have been on the losing end of many roller-coaster finishes this season. So Lubomir Visnovskys overtime goal lifting them to a wild 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs was especially satisfying. The veteran defencemans unassisted tally 1:55 into extra time ended a see-saw contest Thursday night in which the teams combined for five goals in an 8 1/2-minute span of the third period. The winner came after Anders Lee scored two tying goals for the Islanders in his first game of the season. Evgeni Nabokov made 18 saves for New York, which improved to 5-1-2 in their last eight games against Toronto. "Our singular focus is the task at hand, one period at a time and one game at a time," said Islanders coach Jack Capuano, whose squad will be without top scorer and captain John Tavares for the rest of the season with a knee injury suffered at the Olympics. "That team is big and strong. I like the fact we kept moving forward tonight." Joffrey Lupul put Toronto ahead 4-3 with just over six minutes left in the third before Lee knotted the score at 17:20 with his second of the game. Lupuls 18th of the season at 13:54 came just over a minute after Lee tied it at 3 with his first goal. Lees power-play goal came after Dion Phaneuf had put Toronto ahead 3-2 at 11:26. Phaneufs sixth goal of the season came less than three minutes after Paul Ranger tied it at 2. "You cant win in this league giving goals as gifts," Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said. "They tried to grind and we tried to outskill them. They did a better job." After Torontos Phil Kessel opened the scoring at 6:53 of the first with his 32nd goal of the season, New Yorks Michael Grabner scored two short-handed goals 48 seconds apart late in the period. The Islanders held that lead entering the third before the outburst by both teams. Kessel, who scored five goals for Team USA in Sochi, took a pass in the high slot before whipping the puck past Nabokov. Only Washingtons Alex Ovechkin has more goals than Kessel. Grabner answered for the Islanders with his first short-handed score at 15:53 off an assist from Casey Cizikas. The Austrian forward then took advantage of a misplay by Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier, intercepting an attempted pass by the netminder in the crease and sliding the puck into the empty net at 16:41. The goal was the 11th of the season for Grabner, who tied Kessel in goals at the Olympics. "Its a game of mistakes, but at least we got a point out of it," Bernier said. The last Islanders player to score two short-handed goals on the same power play was Ziggy Palffy, 53 seconds apart on April 17, 1999. "We kept coming and obviously had a big shift to score that tying goal," Grabner said. "Everyone fed off each other tonight. We still have a lot of games left. Hopefully we can keep it up." The Islanders (23-30-8), had lost seven of eight games heading into the Olympic break. They were also without forwards Frans Nielsen (hand) and Matt Martin (lower body). Both had played all 60 previous games this season, while Tavares had missed only one contest. The Islanders earlier this week recalled the entire top line from AHL Bridgeport: Lee, Ryan Strome and Mike Halmo, who made his NHL debut. Lee played two games for the Islanders last season with one goal and one assist. Strome, who assisted on Lees second tying goal, has one goal and four assists in 16 games with the Islanders this season. Nielsen, who has a career-best 18 goals, ended his streak of 189 consecutive regular-season games played. He suffered a hand injury in New Yorks last game before the break on Feb. 8. Martin had played 121 straight games and also was hurt in the Feb. 8 home loss to Colorado. The Maple Leafs (32-22-7) came in 11-2-1 before the break. Toronto is battling Montreal and Tampa Bay in the closely packed Atlantic Division as the Leafs trying to reach the playoffs for the second straight season after missing every year since 2004. The Leafs had won three straight and four of their last five at Nassau. But Nabokov was strong throughout, stopping Troy Bodie with his glove four minutes into the second and denying James Van Riemsdyk -- who had three assists -- in front midway through the middle period. NOTES: The Islanders are just 9-14-8 at home this season. They had lost six straight at Nassau Coliseum, including the last two before the break against Calgary and Colorado. ... It was the third and final meeting between the teams this season and the only contest at Nassau Coliseum. The teams split two games at the Air Canada Centre. ... The Islanders are 20-7-3 when they score at least three goals, and are 3-23-5 when they do not. Cheap NFL Jerseys . Maxime Presseaults goal at 13:59 of the second period broke a 2-2 deadlock for the Foreurs, who trailed the series 3-2 before winning back-to-back games, and Guillaume Gelinas and Pierre-Maxime Poudrier also scored. jerseys from china . -- The Royals expect to place left-hander Bruce Chen on the disabled list with a swollen disc in his back that has already caused the club to juggle its starting rotation.PITTSBURGH -- If the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins meet in the first round of the NHL playoffs, things will be different than they were Wednesday night at Consol Energy Center. The Red Wings will likely have Jimmy Howard in goal and are hopeful captain Henrik Zetterberg will return from an extended injury absence. The Penguins should get Evgeni Malkin back from a foot injury, too. But in outplaying Pittsburgh and tying the score late in the third period before losing 4-3 in a shootout, Detroit showed that it could present serious matchup problems for the Metropolitan Division champions. "I thought our team played real well tonight. I thought we were better than them," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said after the shootout loss clinched a playoff spot. "We carried play, in my opinion, tonight, for sure. I thought we played well." By getting a point on the same night the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Dallas Stars, the Red Wings fell to the Eastern Conferences second wild-card spot, even though each team has 91 points. As Babcock pointed out, the Blue Jackets have the tiebreaker that could give them Pittsburgh, while the Red Wings get the Bruins. "Im not spending a whole lot of time awake worrying about this stuff," he said. "Were just in and whoever we get, were going to be a tough out." Babcock said his Red Wings didnt score as many goals as they should have, partially a product of a strong game from Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. But they also put 37 shots on net to the Penguins 24, giving up two of three goals on the power play and another when Jonas Gustavsson couldnt hang on to a puck and Jussi Jokinen poked it in. "Weve matched up well against them," said forward Riley Sheahan, whose goal with 1:15 left got Detroit the point it needed. "Theyre a really skilled team and weve got some skill as well. Cheap Jerseys From China. . "If were matched up against them or whoever else, its going to be a lot of fun." Fleury likewise said it would be a "fun matchup," though one that could see him tested a year after another disappointing playoff showing. This is the same team Fleury beat to win the Stanley Cup in 2009, though only a handful of players remain. "I think theres no easy team that will make the playoffs," Fleury said. "Detroits a good team, they play hard, they got some skills. ... Its going to be a good challenge for us." Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said after his teams morning skate that aspects of the game could affect a potential playoff series, like if one team scored three times on the power play or one player won all his faceoff attempts. Pittsburgh went 2-for-4 on the power play, so that was good enough. "I dont think we were going to analyze the score of the game and project forward if it is a possible playoff matchup," Bylsma said. "We wanted to do certain things in areas of the game and maybe have that be a statement for how we played. Tonight we did that with the power play, for sure." Any statements made in the shootout can be overlooked, whether it was Fleury channelling Dominik Hasek for a diving save or Jussi Jokinen scoring the winner off the shaft of Gustavssons stick. If this were a playoff game, the Red Wings and Penguins wouldve kept playing. Thats not necessary yet, as Jokinen thinks these teams know each other well enough. "I think maybe it helps both teams. I think both teams are pretty familiar," Jokinen said. "They are in-your-face all the time. They play that man-to-man, very aggressive all over the ice. At times we did a good job of that, and at times we need to be better and do a better job making sure we get the pucks out and get pucks behind them." Wholesale Jerseys ' ' ' |
