Certainly tonight’s points don’t matter as the Islanders battled the Florida Panthers. Neither of these teams are going anywhere in the post season except the golf course. But to Mike Halmo it was the best night of his hockey career.
At 4:21 of the third period, Mike Halmo scored his first NHL goal in his 13th NHL game. It was also his first NHL point. After TROCHECK got a shot on Nabokov, Halmo found the puck on his stick and took off the other way. His first shot on Clemmensen bounced off him, and Halmo stayed with it and swatted the puck out of the air, careful not to be above the crossbar and into the back of the net. Casey Cizikas had the loan assist on the play, Halmo will remember that forever too.
Matt Martin earned the Bob Nystrom award for the third year in a row. He also earned his eight goal of the season in spectacular fashion. Colin McDonald took a shot from 39 feet away and Matt Martin skated in to bang in the rebound. It was picture perfect. Matt Martin: goal scorer.
Josh Bailey was the first star of the game with his goal and assist points for the night. Bailey’s goal drought has weighed heavy. It should have been a breakout season for Bailey. Maybe it was too much pressure. He was reluctant to talk to Peter Ruttgaizer after the game on camera as there were a few boos along with the cheers. Ruttgaizer asked how this team managed to get nine out of the last 10 points. It seemed like a dumb question to me. “You have to keep pushing.” When asked about the rookies in the line up, Josh said it was fun. “It’s good to see. The guys deserve it. They’re working hard and there’s no quit in this team.”
That seems to be the case. Butch Goring mentioned it’s the second effort and third effort that makes it a solid effort and hard work pays off. Especially the hard work of Colin McDonald who also had a two point night and was the second star of the game.
“The kids are working hard.” Jack Capuano told the press room. “We were pretty structured in our own end. We got off to a real slow start.”
Slow start? Slow start and a real fast goal on Nabokov. Quinton Howden scored a short handed goal at only 1:50 of the first period. Rusty? Ya think? Travis Hamonic evened the score at 2:35 of the first with a power play goal. So, no harm no foul. “I thought we had some chances that we didn’t finish. It’s real simple shoot the puck. Travis made a good shot and it found the back of the net. I wasn’t happy at all in the first period. But you got to find a way. Teams will take advantage of you. We regrouped, we found a way to get it done.”
“We talked about it after the first. The last 40 minutes of the game were pretty good.” Yes, Jack, it was. It was good to see the young players leaving it all on the ice. “When you put that jersey on, you put it on with pride and I didn’t like that first period.” When asked about Jack’s crop of rookies, as usual, he doesn’t like to call out anyone specific, but he did say “The Cizikas line does the right things at the right time. They played some quality minutes for us tonight.”
The Isles out shot the Panthers 40 - 22 in the 4-2 victory. There is competition on this team for next season’s jobs. As Colin McDonald mentioned, maybe they’re playing well recently because of that. But it is interesting how well they can play without any of their stars in the line-up.
Sideboard; Matt Carkner fought both Erik Gudbranson and Krys Barch. Hopefully, he didn’t do any damage to himself.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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