Dubi and Tambellini give Isles upper hand

On a night where the Islanders were without All-Star netminder Rick DiPietro, the more desperate team from Nassau County came into the Garden and earned a 4-3 shootout victory over the Rangers.

They can credit backup Wade Dubielewicz and rookie Jeff Tambellini as both proved to be the difference between one point and the big two Ted Nolan's club badly needed to stay afloat in the Eastern playoff race. With the Sabres posting a 5-2 win over the eighth seeded Flyers, it allowed the Isles to pull within three of the final spot. Buffalo has 73 points and trails Philly by one.

Despite being largely outplayed, it was the Islanders who built leads of 1-0 and 3-1 courtesy of goals off the sticks off Blake Comeau, Sean Bergenheim and Trent Hunter. Somehow, the Blueshirts didn't score in the game's first five minutes when they swarmed Dubielewicz' net but fired either into the capable backup or wide.

Instead, they came out of the first trailing by a goal which Comeau banked off a Ranger defenseman. The Isles led despite being outshot 12-6. Usually, when you don't convert your opportunities in rivalry games such as these, it comes back to bite you. Let's just say that was the case as the Rangers were forced to play catch up almost the entire night.

That's because Henrik "Seven Million" Lundqvist played like he had lead up his ass. He stunk most of this game and was the only reason his team trailed by two goals in the second after a Nigel Dawes power play tally knotted it.

So, how long did it take for the Islanders to reclaim the lead? Just 41 seconds later when a Bergenheim wrister from 40 feet beat the just turned 26 year-old overpaid No.1 goalie who came up about as small as possible when DiPietro didn't play due to the death of his grandmother. Unlike a few intoxicated angry Ranger fans at tonight's game, condolences go out to Rick and his family.

If Bergenheim's eighth wasn't enough to draw fans' ire, then the next softie Lundqvist managed to give up really stung. Let's be brutally honest here. King Henrik is the worst puckhandling goalie I've ever seen. He makes Mike Richter look like Martin Brodeur. He should never ever be allowed to play the puck because he freezes up and becomes a detriment.

That's exactly how the Isles got their third goal two minutes later thanks to a dreadful giveaway. Even worse was the routine Hunter stinker Lundqvist allowed to sneak through. Garbage.

This is supposed to be the league's highest paid goalie? Can anyone explain how our clueless GM somehow bumped Lundqvist from $4.5 million to $7 million on average? What did he do to merit it? He's won one freaking series. Is he one of the better netminders in the league? Without question. But I never was a fan of handing out a longterm deal such as that and such a hefty raise which will hurt the team's cap space.

To their credit, the Rangers rallied thanks to Chris Drury's 22nd less than two minutes later. A shorthanded goal by resurgent rookie Ryan Callahan off some hard work by Scott Gomez got it tied with 14:13 remaining in regulation.

The game would wind up in a shootout only because a routine Ruslan Fedotenko wrister drew the far iron with our franchise goalie napping. Maybe he was daydreaming about all the millions of dollars and slutty models he'll conquer afterwards. I know. I really shouldn't but I've had enough of Lundqvist losing concentration at key moments this season. It really makes you wonder what's going on in that head.

You want a real goalie? Watch Brodeur with a no-name defense stand on his head most nights.

Lundqvist got off to a great start this season but has been hot and cold ever since December. I'm tired of the excuses.

Oh. And he also blew the skills competition when our coach finally bought a clue and stuck Dawes out there. Somehow, he got no OT shifts. The same amount as Callahan. Can anyone explain that? Almost like asking what Renney was thinking with eight seconds to go in regulation and an offensive zone draw and he sticks out the fourth line. Are you freaking kidding?!?!?!?!?! Why not use a timeout there and setup a play. Stick Drury out there along with your best forwards and go for the kill.

Not this coach. Btw...this is why I really can't see this team winning a Cup. Because of these kind of questionable decisions. You want to be one of the best. How about playing to win for a change?

The Isles do it. You want to know why? Cause they have no choice. They got a lot better scoring chances in the final five minutes before the OT.

How about the selection of Michal Rozsival as the fifth shooter? Huh? Where's Jaromir Jagr or Drury or Callahan? Any of them would've been better.

Truthfully, the hungrier team won tonight. They had the better goalie. Not the one who made just 15 saves on 18 shots and allowed Tambellini to beat him for the winner after Bill Guerin's tying one snuck through in Round Two.

Dubielewicz stole this game finishing with 27 stops. He did it to the Rangers when his team had to win last year and had that miraculous final week to sneak in.

He was better than Lundqvist. How sad.

You could ask a lot of questions based on tonight's game. And no. I don't give one iota about the brownie point because it's a garbage point. Especially when you lose to a shorthanded rival who really has no business being out on the same sheet of ice.

Given how the Rangers played, the goalie was to blame. And btw...I'm with Lenny on Christian Backman. He's softer than a Hostess Twinkie. Get this guy out. Wow. Is he brutal.


Three Stars:

3rd Star-Ryan Callahan, NYR (SHG-7th goal overall)
2nd Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (let in two bad Isles goals and looked lost)
1st Star-Wade Dubielewicz, NYI (27 saves plus 5 of 6 in shootout)

Rangers and Islanders have big nights

A couple of statements were made by the two New York teams on this big Saturday night. Both posted impressive wins to keep pace with the Flyers and Penguins (both winners as well) and gain valuable ground on first place New Jersey.

For the Rangers, the road treated them extremely well at Air Canada Center where they got five power play goals (five in 10 chances folks) including a season high four points (PPG, three assists) from team captain Jaromir Jagr in a 6-1 dismantling of the Maple Leafs.

This was about as good a performance as they've had all season. From Sean Avery's mouth saying how he hated Toronto due to how "hockey obsessed they are" even though he's from there to backup Stephen Valiquette (27 saves) performing great yet again in his home town to the unreal night the power play had, it all clicked for the Blueshirts on this night.

There's really not much to say. That's how convincing this win was. For whatever reason, the road team owned the season series with the teams splitting four games with the Rangers prevailing twice up north while the Leafs got the better of it on Broadway. Toronto technically took the series by virtue of their one point in a shootout loss to Valiquette.

But any way you slice it, this was a nice measure of revenge for that embarrassing 6-2 home defeat over three weeks ago on Dec.6.

They got the first six on the Leafs outskating and outchancing them by plenty. And the best aspect was all the penalties called on Toronto were earned and they buried their chances.

This was really a breakout game for Tom Renney's club who returns to MSG later this early evening to host the Canadiens who come in having won two in a row and are tied for fourth in the conference with New York and two other teams.

When Betts scores from Orr and there's a Petr Prucha sighting- yes twice the Czech tallied to double his goal output to four- you know it's your night.

Rookie center Brandon Dubinsky netted three assists and Scott Gomez continued to play well adding a secondary helper to hike his point streak to a career best 11.

Brendan Shanahan scored his club-leading 13th on an absolute rocket on a five-on-three. Avery not only infuriated the Leafs drawing a power play but basically danced on their faces with an unreal no-look backhand pass to help Prucha snap a 17-game long drought.

"It's a miracle," the very happy Czech expressed to the Associated Press later. "I was waiting for it a long time, and I just want to keep scoring ... and get some confidence."

"My confidence was shaken just in front of the net and I couldn't score a goal," he added. "The one thing that was missing from my game was points. I'm just glad I did it tonight."

A great thing for the Rangers which hopefully Prucha can build on. Now if only they could get Ryan Callahan untracked.

Even Marek Malik is looking better these days since being reinserted. He's actually worked well with Paul Mara and is making quicker reads and decisions instead of complexing things in his end.

Two wins in a row is nice. But three straight before a new calendar year would constitute a winning streak and cause for optimism.

One other quick point. Nik Antropov has had a great season for the Leafs but how many times did we have to see the lanky Russian chop down Rangers with his stick coming high and slashing Prucha or Chris Drury without an arm going up?!?!?!?!?!

That's what's wrong with the officiating these days. They're so obsessed with calling every hook legal or imagined but are missing much more serious blatant infractions which can cause injuries.

Wake the hell up already NHL!


Now to the Islanders who had a great win of their own at an energized barn on the Hempstead Turnpike- posting a 5-2 victory on home ice to make it four straight over the first place Devils this season.

To be perfectly honest, this was quite an entertaining game which included a couple of great scraps. Every time we flipped it on, there was lot of stuff going on. A lot of edge out there with plenty of battles contested. You could see how badly each team wanted it.

I really enjoyed the Mike Rupp-Andy Sutton fight. That was awesome stuff. I only wish I had caught the one between David Clarkson and rejuvenated Islander captain Bill Guerin. Even Mike Comrie and Mike Mottau got into it in the first!

You didn't hear any moans or groans from the crowd. I wonder why. ;)

The Isles really played well the first 40 minutes and led on a shorthanded tally by defenseman Chris Campoli and a second period power play goal from Marc-Andre Bergeron.

They seemed in complete control for most of the second until Devils' leading scorer Zach Parise took a Brian Gionta touch pass and converted a mini-breakaway beating Wade Dubielewicz to the backhand for only his second goal in the last 10. It was very timely because it came with just 25 ticks left giving his team a much needed lift after being outshot 14-6 in the stanza.

When John Madden scored his 12th to knot it just 3:59 into the final period, the Devils clearly had the momentum and began taking it to the Isles generating some really good chances. But Dubielewicz was up to the task stopping 12 of 13 New Jersey shots on his way to 27 saves and the game's 3rd Star.

The goalie allowed his team to find their composure and finally a great individual effort by Trent Hunter resulted in Sutton's deciding marker with 8:17 remaining.

With his team changing, Hunter held onto the puck and gained the Devil zone. Then he maintained control until the change was complete and dropped a pass to Mike Sillinger, who in turn fed a cutting Sutton for a quick one-timer past Martin Brodeur for his first as an Islander.

"I think it's my first (game-winner) ever," Sutton acknowledged later on.

"Guys like Trent Hunter and Mike Sillinger deserve a lot of credit for the way they handled the puck. Hunter had it, and got it back to Silly. I
just tried to be there, and Silly found me and I just shot it as hard as I
could."

It really was just a smart play by Hunter and one which had Brent Sutter seething.

"When you play a team you haven't beaten yet in your division this year, you'd think there would be more of a sense of desperation to want to play one of your better games," the first-year Devil coach pointed out.

"For 30 minutes, we were a very average hockey team.
Then we woke up and played well the next 20 minutes. Then it looked like we
never learned how to play defensive zone coverage
before."

Of course, he was right. His team had plenty of incentive to come away with a 'W.' But the Fishsticks wouldn't allow it to happen Saturday as Sutton also assisted on Sean Bergenheim's insurance tally with 4:58 left which put it away.

Comrie added an empty netter to pull the Isles within five points of first despite being tied with the Flyers for last in the division. It just tells you how close things are in the Atlantic.

All in all, a good night for the two bitter New York rivals as we approach 2008.