Isles' First Win in Regulation- And It's a Good One...

Rangers 1: Islanders 3

Re-read that if you don't believe it.

The hockey gods certainly gave us a wonderful gift last night- our first regulation win over our arch-rivals, the Rangers. The Rangers! How many Isles fans- wait, no, how many Rangers fans- were expecting that? Not many, I can assure you. I was even dreading coming back to my dorm room last night to see the score.

But lo and behold, our young ones pulled it off against the big, bad Blueshirts, who looked anything but last night (or so I'm told)- flat and uninspired, while the Islanders, who always show up against their division rivals, skated all over them. It started with the complete surprise of the season to date, Matt Moulson, who scored on a clean breakaway 55 seconds into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Pierre Parenteau, the recent call-up for the Rangers, would tie the game up 8:30 into the first, but his was the only bright spot for the guys from New York City, who hit an astounding number of posts and whose defense wasn't altogether spectacular (oh, that feels good to say, especially when your team is usually the one with a Swiss-cheese defense- no offense, Mark Streit).

Perhaps the one point where the Rangers could have taken the lead came in the second period, about seven minutes in, where a 2-on-1 developed in the Isles zone. Ryan Callahan and Vinny Prospal, however, couldn't make good, with Callahan hitting a post. That was the story of the night for them. The Isles, meanwhile, apparently hit the net all night. Kyle Okposo (who hasn't scored in the longest time) tallied a power-play goal which proved to be the game-winner, with John Tavares providing an insurance goal with about five minutes left in the third period. Game, set, match, New York Islanders.

Dwayne Roloson made 34 saves last night in what I understand was a very strong showing, which is great for him. All that's left is to get Marty Biron a W for the 200th of his career. As for the JT line, well, all I can say is that they are definitely producing up to par- Tavares is looking nearly as good as we imagined, though he's got some work to do particularly regarding puck protection, and as stated before, Moulson came out of nowhere to lead the Isles in points. Who thought this 25-year-old picked up from the Kings would be so good for this club? Though I'm sure no one's complaining. And it's good to see KO get back into the swing of things with his goal, after being just a bit quiet the past few games- oh, and he also got seven shots on goal. Now THAT is fierce. Also, Doug Weight was back on the ice for the Isles after missing three games with swine flu, and we ended up scoring a power-play goal. Coincidence? I think not. He is the master. He is the captain. :)

Well, all of this winning and stuff has me thinking that mayyybe I'm a bit of a jinx (sadface); however, I'm sure I'll get over myself in time to see the Isles' next game, Friday night at 7:00 at Washington (which is once again being shown on MSG Plus in HD, thank the hockey gods). In the meantime, I will definitely enjoy smiling over this well-deserved and long-awaited two points!

LET'S GO ISLANDERS!!!