UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) – Jason Blake and Alexei Yashin each had a goal and an assist, and the New York Islanders beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Wednesday night.
Rick DiPietro stopped 13 shots for his seventh win this season. Shawn Bates and Miroslav Satan also scored for New York, which improved to 4-1-1 in its last six games.
Scott Walker and Trevor Letowski scored for Carolina, losers of two straight. John Grahame was busy in goal, stopping 45 shots.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead 2:53 into the game when Bates finished off a 2-on-1 break by putting Richard Park’s cross-ice feed into the open net. The rush was set up by a great pass from Alexei Zhitnik.
The Islanders outshot Carolina 20-1 in the period, but Grahame was the sole reason the score was close. His first save was one of his best – he robbed Satan from the low slot on a point-blank shot 30 seconds into the game. The Hurricanes’ only shot came with 1:47 left in the period, on a 30-footer by Kevyn Adams.
Carolina had six shots in the scoreless second period, while the Islanders fired 17 more at Grahame.
Zhitnik set up another 2-on-1 break, which led to Yashin moving up left wing and crossing over to Blake, who waited for Grahame to go down before wristing a shot from the right circle into the net. The goal, Blake’s team-leading 12th, came at 5:59 and withstood a video review after the net was knocked off its moorings just after the puck went in.
Yashin made it 3-0 at 11:18 on a wraparound backhander.
Walker ended DiPietro’s shutout bid 6 seconds into the Hurricanes’ fifth power play. Walker sent Rod Brind’Amour’s cross-ice feed into the open left side at 13:17 for his 10th goal.
Satan tallied an empty-net goal with 49.4 seconds left for a 4-1 lead. Letowski scored with 12 seconds to go.
Notes: It was the ninth time the Islanders held a team to one shot in a period. The last time was Oct. 10, 2002, at Buffalo. New York has never held a team without a shot in a period. It was the fourth time the Hurricanes were held to one shot in a period, and all four times it occurred in the first period. … The win evened the Islanders’ record at home against Carolina/Hartford to 21-21-4-1.
AP-ES-11-22-06 2233EST
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.