Isles Win but May Lose Sutton

My stupid battery on my laptop died at the game during the beginning of the third, so it was back to pen and paper for me.

It was a beautiful goal by Sean Bergenheim that tied the game at 2. Bergenheim has been far more confident these last few games. This is good to see as we've been waiting for it for a long time.

The 15,262 fans in attendance began to chant Let's Go Islanders at the 15:34 mark. The team responded. There would be no 3rd period melt down today. While John Tavares did have a few turn overs, he also made some beautiful plays. Including the game winning goal that was orchestrated by some great acting by Kyle Okposo while Moulson was in the pain creating havoc for the Pens goalie.

At 6:12 of the Third, it was now Wendy's Chili time.

A few minutes later it was Roloson without a stick and Crosby with the puck. That was a scenario for disaster, but the put got tossed into the bench on a clear and the whistle sounded giving Roloson a chance to regroup and re-equip.

Matt Moulson striped Malkin of the puck and headed back into the Pens end. They kept Johnson busy, but he was playing brick wall.

Dan Bylsma decided to go with an empty net for the final minutes of the third. There were so many opportunities, but they went wide. Once ex-Islander Bill Guerin had the puck I got nervous. Roloson made a save on him but left the rebound. There was so much pale blue on the ice, it looked like a baby blanket out there.

The buzzer sounded just a second or two before the puck slid into the empty net. They didn't need the extra goal. All they wanted was the two points.

Scott Gordon got what he wanted. A better show of it.

Once in the locker room everyone was talking about the fabulous penalty kill of the Islanders. They are getting too much practice killing off those 5 on 3s. So when they go from killing off a 5 on 3 straight to 5 on 4, it was news.

"How big was that penalty kill the second period?" Matt Moulson was asked.

"It was huge." was the understatement of the day. "Those guys were tired, but were working and Rolie made some big saves. It was kind of the turning point of the game."

Matt said the difference today was that they were determined "no matter what" to win the game. "Even when we were down 2 -1, we came back. We were gritty around the net..." They were also more focused as they should be after Wednesday's meltdown.

Moulson was right in the crease when Tavares scored the winning goal. Since he had previously said he left a goal for JT, I asked him if he did that again so John would get the goal. He laughed but admitted, "Nah, nah, I did NOT touch it. I was gonna whack it but then I saw him there, so he got it before me. A SPLIT SECOND before me."

John Tavares now has ten goals and eleven assists for 21 points while Moulson has 19 points. They are so close.

Gordon was asked if he was pleased with the game and effort. "Oh, it goes without saying. I think you'd be hard pressed to find more than one or two turn overs in the third period. We pushed the pace, and obviously I have to commend the guys and their effort. We generated some really good chances tonight in all periods."

Again, Gordon used the word "huge" to describe the penalty kill. They hardly gave up any shots on the kill. He admitted that had they scored, it would have made a difference in how they played. He said he told them at the end of the second period they had to learn from the previous game. They had to create chances by doing things the RIGHT way.

"I can't say enough about the way our guys played."

At the time of the post game, they didn't have a status on Andy Sutton who had left the third period early with a possible groin problem. By the time I hit the Southern State Parkway, Andrew MacDonald was told to get on the road and head up from Bridgeport for tomorrow's afternoon tilt against the Devils.

I waited a few minutes for Bruno Gervais to get off the bike. I wanted to speak to him because I thought he had played one of his best games this season. I asked around a little to confirm that. Yep. Bruno was noticeable today, even if the score sheet said he was a -2 (the same as Sidney). The two shots he had on goal were BIG shots.

The score sheet calls for far more give aways than I noticed. (It also credits JT with far LESS giveaways than I counted.) He had three hits and one blocked shot. All I know is that I made note of his name a few times in the notebook since I lost the computer.

So, I asked him what was different. "We are trying to play the system as much as we can, trying to work hard and today everyone was doing their job. Especially in the third. I felt really good. I felt really confident. Even when we were behind, we didn't quit. We worked well. It's a team thing. We're going to get some chances for sure. Those guys make great passes and we're just going to try to find a spot and put it on net. Guys are going to the net and it's paying off."

I asked if there was anything that Scott Gordon said at the MANDATORY Thanksgiving Day practice that stuck with him.

"We knew there were things we needed to correct and one of those things was to have a better third period and not turn the puck over. Being safe with the puck and making good decisions. And I think that's what happened tonight. We play like that the entire game and wear them down. We had the puck behind their D a lot and towards the end we saw that we had a lot of chances and it paid off."

Considering it was Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin they were fending off today, yes, their chances paid off. But Bruno wanted me to realize this is a team sport and those elite players can't win the game on their own and the Islanders didn't either.

"We're not going to beat those guys by going one on one. We want to make sure we are always in the right position. I think we frustrated them tonight."

That's the best thing the Islanders can do. If they continue to frustrate their opponents they will keep quietly adding up points.