Avs top Isles to end trip on high note
The official game recap New York Islanders vs Colorado Avalanche.Matt Duchene scored twice and Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.
Nathan MacKinnon and Paul Stastny also scored and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 30 saves for Colorado (37-16-5), which managed a split of its four-game road trip. The Avalanche opened the trip with a win against the New Jersey Devils before falling short against the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
John Tavares and Lubomir Visnovsky scored power-play goals for the Islanders (22-30-8), who tried to rally in the third after falling behind 3-0. New York fell to 8-14-8 at home.
MacKinnon opened the scoring with his 22nd goal 13:04 into the game. With the teams at even strength, Landeskog stormed past Eric Boulton from the right corner before being knocked into Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov (22 saves) by Boulton, leaving an open net for MacKinnon. The rookie forward quickly ripped it home to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
New York had a goal disallowed 1:17 into the second period when Thomas Vanek poked a puck in the goal crease past Giguere. But it was ruled the whistle had blown before the puck crossed the goal line.
Duchene doubled Colorado's lead with his 100th NHL goal at 7:49 of the second period. The speedy forward took advantage after Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey was caught pinching in the offensive zone. Brock Nelson tried to cover for Hickey, but Duchene cruised past Nelson before tapping the puck past Nabokov to make it 2-0.
Duchene scored again 2:44 later, taking a pass from Tyson Barrie and ripping a shot from a sharp angle at the right circle past Nabokov.
Tavares ended an 0-for-33 power-play drought at 11:17 of the third period. The Islanders captain cashed in on a two-man advantage, collecting a loose puck at the right side of the net and firing a wrist shot past Giguere to make it 3-1. It was his 24th goal.
Visnovsky got the Islanders within one with a power-play goal of his own 1:07 later. Moments after Erik Johnson was whistled for slashing Frans Nielsen, Visnovsky took a pass from Kyle Okposo and ripped a slap shot past Giguere for his second goal of the season.
But Landeskog put the game away with an empty-net goal at 19:13. And Stastny was credited with an empty-net goal after the game, when it was ruled that Vanek threw his stick in Stastny's direction while the latter put a shot towards the goal at 19:58.
Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic returned to the lineup for the first time since sustaining an upper-body injury Jan. 12.
-- by NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
09/02/2014 - 04:00
