With a Little Luck and Emotion, Islanders force Game 7

from: Yahoo.com

The New York Islanders took a terrible beating on Thursday night and responded as one might imagine they would with a spirited effort to force game 7 to be played on Monday night.

Jaroslav Halak who was terrible in net on Thursday night, responded with an inspired effort stopping 38 shots while allowing just 1 Washington tally on the day.

New York who is very banged up on defense dressed the once highly touted Matt Donavan who has seemed to fall off the radar over the past year.  Also getting into the lineup was Scott Mayfield who had been a -3 in 5 games last season.

The two were paired together and played very well in limited action and Mayfield landed a huge hit on Jason Chimira; a two-handed shove sending Chimira backwards to the ice.

Donavan looked more comfortable than Griffin Reinhardt did in game 5, but took a game misconduct late in the first period.

The Isles got off to a good start when John Tavares finally made his presence known scoring in the first period.  In an odd man rush, Tavares skated to the high slot and fired through a screen to give New York the lead.

Late goals have been a problem for New York all season, and they were victimized again yesterday.

Tavares took a slashing penalty with under a minute to go in the first and with just seconds remaining in the period, John Carlson knotted the game at 1.

It remained that way until the third when John Tavares chased a puck into the corner behind Braden Holtby’s net.  Two Capitals went to hit the Islander captain and got away with a boarding penalty.  However, the action allowed the puck to squirt free so that Nick Leddy could find a wide open Nik Kulemin in front of the net who deked and backhanded past Holtby.

The Capital goalie seemed to blame his defense on the goal telling the AP, “I’ve never seen a play like that, playing 2-on-2-hockey. You have to keep your composure a little better, not double-coverage. You don’t plan for that stuff. It’s tough to swallow.”

The Capitals nearly had the game tied with 5:36 remaining, but Jay Beagle hit the crossbar of a wide open net from close range.

Cal Clutterbuck who has been the Isles’ emotional leader, added the empty netter which he seemed to relish as he sat on the end of the bench closest to Alex Ovechkin and jawed at him as the contest drew to a close.

After the final whistle, tempers flared as Washington fired a shot that the Isles felt was after the whistle.

All told, roughing penalties were handed out to 8 players at the 20 minute mark of the third period.

The emotional series will be determined Monday night in Washington.