NY Isles @ Ottawa

[Madferret]

NY Isles @ Ottawa
March 15. 07

(Sports Network) - The Ottawa Senators aim for their third win in four games tonight, when they open the doors of Scotiabank Place for the New York Islanders.

The Senators are one point behind Pittsburgh for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference standings. Ottawa held the fourth spot until the Penguins earned a 3-0 win in New Jersey on Wednesday.

Andrej Meszaros scored the game-winning goal to give the Sens Tuesday's 3-2 triumph at Madison Square Garden.

Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson each scored a goal for the Senators, while Ray Emery made 32 saves in net.

Ottawa, which begins a brief two-game homestand tonight, is 22-11-3 as the host club this year. The Sens have won seven of their last eight home tilts.

Meanwhile, the Islanders are coming off Tuesday's big loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Guillaume Latendresse scored twice and Chris Higgins netted the game-winning goal midway through the third period to lift the Habs over New York, 5-3, at the Bell Centre.

Ryan Smyth scored on a penalty shot while Marc-Andre Bergeron and Alexei Yashin also scored for New York, which fell to 1-2-1 in its last four games.

With 78 points, the Islanders are still in the playoff race and come into Thursday tied with Carolina for the East's final two postseason berths.

However, New York may have lost more than a game on Tuesday as goaltender Rick DiPietro was forced to leave the game in the first period with a stiff neck. DiPietro and Montreal forward Steve Begin collided and Begin's skate struck DiPietro in the head. He was helped off the ice and did not return. Mike Dunham allowed five goals on 32 shots in relief.

The Islanders are hoping DiPietro can play this evening, but if not, New York will again turn to Dunham.

Tonight's test marks the second of a four-game road trip for the Islanders, who are just 15-14-5 as the visiting team this year. New York has dropped five of its last seven road tests.

Ottawa has taken six straight from the Islanders, including both meetings this season. New York is 0-4-1 (4 losses, 1 tie) in its last five trips to Scotiabank Place.

[Madferret]

Isles' DiPietro will not face Senators
TSN.ca Staff

New York Islanders' star Rick DiPietro will not play tonight against the Ottawa Senators.

Head coach Ted Nolan explained after the Isles' morning skate that the goaltender is sore and will be given the night off.

DiPietro left Tuesday's game against the Montreal Canadiens after a collision with Steve Begin in the first period. The Islanders lost 5-3.

Nolan did confirm after game against Montreal that his goaltender did receive a blow to the head and was sent for tests at a hospital, but the team has not given any more specifics other than to list DiPietro as day-to-day.

The game against Montreal marked DiPietro's 18th straight start for the Islanders. The 25-year-old is 30-19-7 with a 2.59 GAA and 5 shutouts this season.

The Islanders sit in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 78 points. They are ahead of the eighth place Carolina Hurricanes, also with 78 points, due to having played two fewer games. The Islanders trail the sixth place Tampa Bay Lightning by four points.

The ninth-place Toronto Maple Leafs are only one point behind the Islanders and Hurricanes.

[Iced Tea]

Dunham had a major meltdown and the Sens put the game away. The Isles are screwed if Dipetro is out long term with his full body soreness.

[Madferret]

Senators hand Islanders costly loss
Canadian Press

OTTAWA (CP) - Given the performance the New York Islanders turned in Thursday night, the presence of Rick DiPietro between the posts wouldn't have made an ounce of difference against the Ottawa Senators.

''Mike Dunham is a great goaltender,'' said Islanders forward Jason Blake after the Senators chased New York's replacement starter from the game with five goals on 28 shots en route to a 5-2 victory. ''It doesn't matter who's in net: Mike, Ricky or Martin Brodeur, if you hang him out to dry, there's not much he can do back there. It wasn't his fault.''

Joe Corvo and Dean McAmmond each had a goal and an assist and the Senators, playing before a sold-out crowd of 19,989 at Scotiabank Place, compounded the misery for the Islanders, who were forced to start without their injured No. 1 goaltender for the first time since Feb. 1.

DiPietro is listed as day-to-day with a sore neck after being injured in a collision with Montreal's Steve Begin in a loss to the Canadiens on Tuesday.

The Senators took a 2-0 lead then buried the Islanders with a third-period explosion in which they scored three times in 76 seconds.

''It was unacceptable,'' Islanders forward Ryan Smyth said of New York's second straight defeat and fourth in the past five games. ''We're in a playoff race and we've got to find a way to step up our game or we're going to be on the outside looking in.''

Ottawa (41-23-7) received goals from unlikely sources.

Corvo's was his first in 26 games and Chris Neil scored his first in 20 games.

Chris Kelly and Jason Spezza also scored for the Senators, who won for the second straight game and seventh time in a row against the Islanders.

Antoine Vermette and Mike Comrie each added a pair of assists for the Senators and Dany Heatley set up Spezza's goal to extend his point streak to 16 games.

Ray Emery made 28 saves to pick up the victory in goal.

In the past 41 meetings between the teams dating back to Feb. 12, 1996, Ottawa's record is 29-4-8-0, including 3-0 this season.

The victory also allowed the Senators to leapfrog the idle Pittsburgh Penguins for fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings with 89 points.

''It's a game that we've got to build on,'' said Corvo, who hadn't scored since Jan. 7. ''Everybody going on all cylinders.''

Miroslav Satan had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (34-26-10) and Drew Fata, with his first NHL marker, also scored.

The Islanders began the night clinging to seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, even on 78 points with the Carolina Hurricanes, who lost 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Dunham gave way to Wade Dubielewicz in the third period with New York trailing 5-0.

He made his first start in 19 games and there wasn't much he could do about Kelly's opening goal early in the second period.

He didn't look sharp on Corvo's goal less than four minutes later that made it 2-0. Corvo threw the puck at the net from the side boards and it took a deflection off the skate of Islanders defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron and fooled the goaltender.

Ottawa then blew the game open early in the third when Neil scored on a wraparound two minutes in to set off a flurry that would spell the end of the night for Dunham. The three-goal outburst by Ottawa that came in one minute, 16 seconds, marks a franchise record for the club.

''We've got to step up and everybody's got to play a part in our zone, all five guys, and we weren't doing it tonight,'' Smyth said.

Neil hadn't scored since Jan. 27 and it was only his second goal in the past 39 contests.

''It's one of those things as long as we win,'' Neil said. ''I'm not really here to score goals, I'm here to create openings for other guys. If I can chip in, that's great.''

McAmmond cashed in a rebound 24 seconds after that and 52 seconds later, Spezza capped off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Heatley and Patrick Eaves for his 29th goal of the season.

Spezza now has at least a point in his past 15 games (nine goals, 17 assists), although it's not recognized as an official streak because he sat out a game with an injury.

Dubielewicz, making his first appearance of the season after being recalled from AHL Bridgeport on Wednesday, replaced Dunham following the goal and made eight saves the rest of the way.

Satan broke Emery's shutout bid late during a 5-on-3 power play and Fata got credit for a goal from a scramble with 4.2 seconds left.

Notes: Neil's goal was his 100th NHL point. .. Forward Oleg Saprykin was a healthy scratch for the Senators for the second straight game. .. Ottawa plays host to Philadelphia on Saturday. .. Bergeron appeared in his 200th career game. .. Islanders defenceman Sean Hill was a scratch. .. The Islanders travel to Florida to face the Panthers on Saturday and wrap up their road trip Tuesday at Tampa.

[Madferret]

Why was Saprykin scratched again? They never give these depth guys they trade for a f'ing chance...

[Max Power]

Why was Saprykin scratched again? They never give these depth guys they trade for a f'ing chance...

I wonder if we could have got Roberts for the 2nd round pick and Kaigorodov :wicked:

I had a chance to experience the 400 box seats last night for the first time. Pleasantly surprised how nice they are. You can easily follow the game and watch all the plays unfold with the birds eye view