Islanders 4 Lightning 0
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by Bwell316
That's called a bounce back game.
After an absolute albatross on Saturday night in an 8-3 bombing against the Hurricanes, the Islanders came to play last night, putting out a great all around effort in a 4-0 win last night. Rick DiPietro had 28 saves, but the star of the show was Mike Sillinger, who in pre-game ceremonies was recognized for playing in his 1000th game, only the 6th Islander to do so. He celebrated by recording an assist and watched as Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko, Josef Vasicek, and even the slumping Trent Hunter provided the scoring.
DiPietro recorded an assist on Guerin's goal in the first period, slapping the puck out of the air, causing him to inadvertenly hit his teammate Andy Hilbert in the face in the process of getting the puck out to Sillinger, who proceed to set-up Guerin for his slapshot throught Marc Denis's 5 hole. The Isles defense looked a little lost at times with clearing the zone, but DiPietro rescued them time and again. Tampa certainly helped by over-passing and missing the net witha alot of their shots, including two post-ringers in the third period. The Lightning are now 0-6 on the road this year.
The next Isles game is Al Arbour night on Saturday night, as legendary coach Al Arbour returns to the island to coach his 1500th game and bumps Ted Nolan to the assistant role for the night against Sid the Kid and the Penguins. I hope Directv steps up and broadcasts the game in HD, it should be a pretty special night.
