A Win! A Win! And One We Were Due For

Islanders 3 : Lightning 2 (OT)

The slide had to come to an end eventually, and so it did, as the Islanders snapped their five-game winless streak in Tampa last night against a talented Lightning team that had their own three-game win streak ended. I watched with alternating feelings- joy, excitement, and frustration- as the Isles did let Tampa come back twice on the PP with Brad Richards scoring both regulation goals, but hey, look! Bill Guerin scored a goal, his first in 17 games and one that went in over at least five people's heads- who'da thunk, man? Then Andy Hilbert scored his second of the year off of a great feed by Trent Hunter who stripped a Tampa defenseman behind the net.

Tampa refused to let up throughout the whole game, capitalizing on power-play chances, and banking on their goaltender Johan Holmqvist, who made as many big saves seemingly as the goaltender on the other end, our own Rick DiPietro (32 svs) did. Despite having to rely on Rick for making critical saves while the offense was still trying to get through Holmqvist, there was a tremendous effort within the whole team, compared to the listless output in Sunrise the night previous against the Panthers. Last night's game was also a very entertaining one, as any game with Martin St. Louis, Richards, and Vincent Lecavalier going up against a solid defense and a much-improved DiPietro should be. And as the game stretched into OT, and the Lightning started to unravel, with Filip Kuba and Paul Ranger both going to the box for consecutive penalties, you started to feel the buzz going through the players- they knew they had to score. That power play time gave Mike Sillinger and Chris Campoli some time to discuss puck movement and offensive strategy, which paid off handsomely- Sillinger scored the game winner, with Campoli getting first assist. How's that for communication?

One player who had a great game was Andy Sutton, formerly erratic in his own zone, but who was strong last night- most noted for his crushing hip check on a Bolt early in the first, but who also had three blocked shots. Radek Martinek also had three, and Brendan Witt his usual puck-eating self with four (one that went painfully off of his foot). The only thing that needed to be helped was the discipline issue- once again we take too many penalties, and because of that, the PK can't hold up as well, causing it to slip further and further down the rankings with every game. But other than that, it was a great and much-needed win for us, to pick up our confidence and hopefully get us working harder and string some wins together. Maybe four, five games... start off small... *grin* Next game isn't until Wednesday at Buffalo, which gives the Isles some rest and a chance to play against a Buffalo team that is changed, but is still going strong (they beat the Sharks 7-1). If any of our success against them earlier in the season factors into this game, we should of course have a win on our hands. The trick is to keep playing our game.