A pleasant evening for the Islanders faithful at the Coliseum tonight. After having been a house of doom for the last six games, the Isles won in overtime on an unassisted shot that left JVR sprawled on the ice in disbelief.
A game that was filled with ten penalties was also home to nine goals. I thought it was going to be a double digit loss for the Isles as a well rested Nabokov faced the likes of Phil Kessel who opened the scoring at 6:53 of the first period. It looked like the shape of things to come. But the Isles, especially the Bridgeport call-ups, had another idea.
So did Michael Grabner fresh from his confidence building stint on Team Austria. With Eric Boulton in the box, Grabner managed a short handed goal on Bernier. Less than a minute later -- he did it again.
The Isles went to the dressing room with a one goal lead and would hold onto it for the entire second period. Mike Halmo, making his NHL debut wanted to make his presence known, Halmo blocked one shot, got one on net and laid four hits in his 9:01 of ice time.
In the third, Anders Lee also scored twice for the Isles. Once to even the score 94 seconds after Dion Phaneuf put the Leafs ahead with three goals and again to even things up at four after Joffrey Lupul beat Nabokov.
It was classic Islanders giving up late goals putting them behind the eight ball once again. But somehow, they prevailed and the game went into overtime. Thomas Vanek had an excellent chance in the paint, but couldn’t connect. He left it for Lubomir Visnovsky to win the game.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m starting to realize that the less I expect of this team, the better they do. While the Leafs, who had an excellent showing in the stands, did leave with a point, they were disappointed. And… I wouldn’t have THAT any other way either.
When Jack Capuano was asked about leadership in the room without John Tavares, he answered he wasn’t worried. “We lead by committee.” This committee has a few new members and a few may be leaving in a few days. But if they can pull together, at least it will be an entertaining remainder of the season.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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