Print

Mail

wiki links

Blake powers Islanders to 3-2 victory over Penguins

Jason Blake, New York's ninth shooter in the NHL's longest shootout so far, nearly lost the puck but recovered to steer a shot past Jocelyn Thibault for the Islanders to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Monday.

As Blake came down the slot, the puck seemed to slide off his stick momentarily, but he got it back and beat Thibault by faking a backhander only to slide the puck inside the near post.

"The last two games, the problem was I missed four breakaways, so there was a little concern there with my confidence," Blake said.

"I mishandled the puck at the hash mark, but I got lucky and he tried to pokecheck me and he missed it. I got lucky -- that's all I can say," he said.

Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro stopped the Penguins' final six shooters, including Mark Recchi, Ziggy Palffy and John LeClair, to give New York its second shootout victory in two attempts. The Penguins lost the second of their three shootouts, even though rookies Erik Christensen and Sidney Crosby kept the shootout going by scoring after getting Pittsburgh's only goals in regulation.

Alexei Yashin got his 300th career goal and Shawn Bates got his third goal in two games to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead in the second period, but Crosby and Christensen tied it for the Penguins in the third period.

Lightning 5, Flyers 2

At Tampa, Florida, Vinny Prospal had three goals and an assist to help the Lightning snap a six-game losing streak with a win over Philadelphia.

Prospal has eight goals and 18 points during a 10-game point streak. His second goal of the game, coming on the power play, put the Lightning ahead 3-2 with 4:15 left in the second period. The center was left alone in the front of the net and scored after taking a pass from Brad Richards.

Martin Cibak extended the Lightning's lead to 4-2 on a breakaway with 7:55 to play. Prospal completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 37.3 seconds left. Peter Forsberg scored twice for the Flyers, who had won six straight. He has six goals and 31 points in 16 games this season.

Flames 3, Wild 2

At Calgary, Alberta, Jarome Iginla scored a power-play goal with 1:07 left to give Calgary its seventh straight victory.

Iginla also set up third-period goals by Dion Phaneuf and Daymond Langkow as the Flames battled back from a 2-0 deficit to improve its record to 11-2-7.

Mikko Koivu and Randy Robitaille scored for Minnesota, which lost its third straight to drop to 8-2-9. Minnesota goalie Dwayne Roloson stopped 39 shots.

Oilers 5, Avalanche 2

At Denver, Chris Pronger scored his first goal for Edmonton to help goalie Mike Morrison win his first career start.

Pronger, the star defenseman who was traded away by St. Louis after spending nine seasons with the Blues, struggled in his new setting, held to nine assists and no goals over the first 19 games for Edmonton.

He broke through against David Aebischer after taking a pass from Ales Hemsky at the top of the circle just as a 5-on-3 power play was ending at 14:13 of the second period to make it 3-2.

Ryan Smyth and Ethan Moreau gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead before Rob Blake and Ian Laperriere scored to tie it 2-2.

Raffi Torres and Marty Reasoner capped the scoring for the Oilers.
This story has been viewed 1157 times.