Playing 4-on-4 in overtime, John Tavares fell over Ottawa’s Mike Folingo on a hard backcheck. The other Islanders on the ice rushed the other way and it would be PA Parenteau with a sweet pass to Milan Jurcina who would feed Mark Eaton for the backhand winner. With the Sens’ Craig Anderson well out of position, the defender tossed it into the back of the net for his first goal of the season and the overtime winner.
TONIGHT’S LINES
Moulson – Tavares – Okposo
Grabner – Nielsen – Parenteau
Rakhshani – Bailey – Martin
Niederreiter – Pandolfo – Wallace
Streit – Staios
Hamonic – MacDonald
Jurcina – Eaton
Nabokov
Montoya
Yesterday the AHL announced the winners of their monthly awards and two Sound Tigers earned the honors. Kevin Poulin won Goaltender of the Month in the AHL and Casey Cizikas was named Player of the Month. That gives the Islanders an interesting trifecta, with John Tavares winning NHL Player of the Month earlier in the week.
Of course, each of these players will probably tell you they appreciate the awards but are focused on the team. And that’s where they should be focused but it’s certainly nice to see a few players in the organization getting big honors.
For Cizikas and Poulin, it’s been a heck of a month in Bridgeport. Cizikas was an alternate for the All-Star Game when Calvin de Haan got hurt but that doesn’t mean he was any slouch. The center had 18 points and was +14 in 11 January games while Poulin was undefeated (6-0-1) with a stunning .949 save percentage. Thanks to their efforts and others, the Sound Tigers are on a ridiculous 10-0-1 run to go undefeated in January playing without de Haan, Dylan Reese and Tim Wallace. Continue reading →
-
Thursday, the Governor spoke at Molloy College and discussed a potential casino at Belmont. He came out against it, basically pointing out that it wouldn’t make sense given the plans for a convention center and casino at Aqueduct. Hidden at the bottom of the Newsday report was this:
The second round of Regional Economic Development Council grants, in which $200 million will be distributed for local projects, is the only source of state funding available to redevelop the Nassau Hub. Cuomo is meeting with Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano in the next few weeks to discuss the Hub.
So, it’s good that they’re talking. Some fans have appealed to the Governor on Twitter to step in and help the situation. However, if there’s $200 million available for local projects, the County would need an awfully large chunk of the State pie to be able to do a decent renovation, forget about ‘building a new arena’. We’ll see what comes from this.
On Tuesday the Islanders confirmed what had been reported by WFAN and alluded to by the borough president earlier in the month; they will be headed to the Barlcays Center in Brooklyn for a pre-season game in October. The date is Tuesday, October 2nd and the opponent will be the Devils for the first hockey game at the new arena.
For the Islanders, it’s another not-so-subtle hint and nudge towards Nassau County. It’s a smart move and a necessary one, a friendly reminder to all parties involved that there’s a little deadline in 2015 that’s coming up. This is no big victory, no signature on the dotted line of the Islanders moving to Brooklyn — please don’t construe it as anything even resembling serious negotiations towards post-2015. It’s a small step, another needle poked in the side of the County. For all fans that want to see this team stay in the local area, it’s a good first step but it’s not any great leap.
But here is, I think, one of the more important quotes to come out of this story that got overlooked: Continue reading →
After brief stay and a win last night, Kevin Poulin has been returned to Bridgeport. Both the Islanders and Sound Tigers next games are Friday.
Casey Cizikas was named AHL player of the week.
Expect John Tavares to be named NHL Player of the Month soon (and now it’s official).
Tonight in Carolina the Islanders’ picked up a road win over the Hurricanes in what was almost a blown opportunity. They carried a 2-0 lead into the third period, thanks to two power play goals and some refs that swung things back in the Islanders favor after last week’s mess (Mike Hasenfratz worked both tonight and the Toronto game at NVMC if you’re scoring at home). They almost gave it back, allowing the Canes to open the third with two scores. In the end, they would hang on and add in a couple of stat-padding empty netters.
With four power plays in the first two periods, the Isles converted for two and looked out of sorts for the other two. PA Parenteau notched the first score with a slick wrister off a nice feed from John Tavares who as always, was everywhere. Continue reading →
← Older postsNewer posts →
