Avalanche falls 6-0 on Long Island
The official game recap New York Islanders vs Colorado Avalanche.Jaroslav Halak made 20 saves for his second straight shutout and the New York Islanders got goals from six different players Tuesday in a 6-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Nassau Coliseum.
Halak, who made 19 saves in a 1-0 road victory against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday, has not allowed a goal in his last 143 minutes and 27 seconds, dating to the second period of a 3-2 overtime win at the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. The Islanders have not surrendered a goal since 3:49 into the first period of a 2-1 shootout victory at the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, a span of 181:11.
Halak preserved the shutout by stopping Nathan MacKinnon's breakaway backhander with three minutes left in regulation.
Nick Leddy, Anders Lee, Travis Hamonic, Nikolay Kulemin, Casey Cizikas and Ryan Strome scored for the Islanders (10-5-0), who've won four in a row and moved within one point of first place in the Metropolitan Division.
The victory was payback of a sort for the Islanders, who were playing their first home game after a five-game trip that began with a 5-0 loss to the Avalanche in Denver on Oct. 30.
The Avalanche (4-8-5) has lost the first two games of a four-game road trip that continues against the New York Rangers on Thursday and is 1-4-1 since beating the Islanders 12 days ago.
Semyon Varlamov, who stopped all 40 shots he faced in Colorado's win against the Islanders, again made 40 saves but was beaten six times.
Colorado nearly scored before the game was one minute old when Matt Duchene broke around Leddy and hit the post with a backhander. But Leddy didn't miss at 1:33 when he took a long rebound of defense partner Johnny Boychuk's shot off the end boards, skated well into the left circle and beat Varlamov low to the short side for his fourth of the season and his 100th NHL point.
The Islanders made it 2-0 at 5:21 on the power play with the help of a fortunate bounce. With Colorado's Jamie McGinn serving a roughing penalty, a right-wing dump-in took an odd hop out of the corner and deflected into the slot. Varlamov tried to play the odd carom with his stick; instead, he gave the puck to Lee, who quickly slammed it into the net for his second of the season.
The Islanders went up by three at 6:38 of the second period on Hamonic's second of the season. New York's top line hemmed the Avalanche in their own zone and John Tavares slipped the puck to the right point. Hamonic's slap shot sailed past Varlamov, who was screened by Kulemin.
Colorado got a power-play chance when Leddy was called for interference at 11:19. But 13 seconds later, Kulemin took a breakaway pass from Frans Nielsen, faked to his forehand and beat Varlamov with a backhander to the glove side for a 4-0 lead. Kulemin has two goals this season; both have come shorthanded.
New York outshot Colorado 28-13 through two periods and had a 45-26 advantage in shot attempts.
Cizikas and Strome each scored their first goals of the season in a span of 1:58 in the third period to seal the 6-0 victory.
-- by John Kreiser for NHL.com --
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12/11/2014 - 08:00
