Islanders open homestand with win
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs New York Islanders.Cal Clutterbuck scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period to help the New York Islanders to a 5-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Barclays Center on Monday.
Clutterbuck tipped a defenseman Thomas Hickey's shot from the inside the blue line on the right side past Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov at 1:52 for his sixth of the season.
The Islanders (13-8-4), who opened a three-game homestand and will play the New York Rangers on Wednesday, are 3-0-1 in their past four games and 9-2-1 against Western Conference opponents.
Former Islanders forward Blake Comeau gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 10:20 of the first period. He skated around the net and attempted a wraparound that went off Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss' glove and over the goal line. It was Comeau's fourth goal of the season.
The Islanders tied the game 1-1 with 1.4 seconds remaining in the first period on a power-play goal by Kyle Okposo. New York had a 5-on-3 and Okposo took a wrist shot on a pass from Frans Nielsen which beat Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov.
Mikhail Grabovski made it 2-1 Islanders 6:31 into the second period on a nice passing play with Nikolay Kulemin and Ryan Strome. His backhander from in close went past Varlamov.
Jarome Iginla scored 41 seconds later after the Islanders failed to clear the puck to tie the game 2-2 with a wrist shot from inside the blue line. Iginla's eighth goal of the season was his first in nine games and was his 597th career goal; he needs three more to become the 19th NHL player to score 600 goals.
The Avalanche (9-14-1) are in a stretch of 11 of 13 games on the road. They fell to 4-10-1 against Eastern Conference opponents. Following a 5-3 victory against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, Colorado failed to win two straight games for the second time this season.
Casey Cizikas made it 4-2 Islanders at 8:16 with a goal from the left point off a failed clearing attempt off the boards. It was his fourth goal of the season.
Colorado got to within 4-3 with Varlamov pulled for an extra attacker on a goal from Nick Holden with 3:34 left. Strome scored an empty-net goal with 47 seconds left to make it 5-3.
Varlamov made 23 saves; Greiss made 25 saves in his second straight start.
Matt Duchene didn't score, but finished the month with 11 goals in 14 games, setting a franchise record for goals in November. Claude Lemieux has 10 goals in Nov. 1995.
Islanders forward Josh Bailey played in his 500th game. He was selected by New York in the first round (No. 9) of the 2008 NHL Draft.
-- by David Satriano for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
01/12/2015 - 04:30
