NEW JERSEY 5, ISLANDERS 2

By Tom Liodice

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Photo Gallery   Game Highlights

The Islanders three-game winning streak was put to an end on Friday night, as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Islanders, 5-2.

David Clarkson put the Devils on the board late in the first period at 18:41 with his fifth goal of the season. Clarkson tipped a Johnny Oduya shot in front of Islanders goaltender Joey MacDonald to give the Devils a 1-0 lead.

The Devils quickly extended their lead to 2-0 just 10-seconds later at 18:51 of the first after Travis Zajac tipped a Jamie Langenbrunner shot that threw MacDonald off-guard.

"That really killed us," said Islanders captain Bill Guerin. "They got some really timely goals tonight. You've got to give them credit. They played a real solid game on not a lot of rest."

With the Devils up 2-0, Hilbert gave the Islanders their first goal of the game at 3:29 of the second period, cutting the Devils in half. Hilbert took the puck from the boards to the right of Devils goaltender Kevin Weekes, turned and fired a wrist shot that found the top-left-hand corner of the net to make it 2-1 Devils. The goal was Hilbert's fourth of the season

New Jersey got the two-goal lead right back just 23 seconds later at 3:52 of the second period, on Bryce Salvador's first of the season. Salvador threw at shot at the Islanders net that deflected off of Chris Campoli's skate and behind MacDonald.

MacDonald credited the Devils ability for coming back quickly following Islanders goals in the second period.

"Every time we battled back, they came back down. The third goal was a shot off our defense and into the net," said MacDonald. "It was one of those nights where the puck was bouncing."

Bergenheim brought the Islanders back to within one goal for the second time of the game at 13:04 of the second period, bringing the score to 3-2. Bergenheim corralled an Andy Sutton shot that hit the post, and had a wide-open net for the easy put-in. The goal was Bergenheim's fourth of the season.

"The second period I thought we started throwing some stuff to the net and we started getting some bounces on them," MacDonald said after the game. "There were rebounds there for the taking."

With the Islanders on a powerplay and a delayed penalty about to be called on Jeff Tambellini, Brian Gionta gave the Devils their third two-goal lead of the game at 19:45 of the second period, making it 4-2 Devils.

Paul Martin padded the Devils lead to 5-2 on with New Jersey on a five-on-three man advantage.

Frans Nielsen was injured in the third period after taking an elbow to the head from Mike Mottau. Trent Hunter came to Nielsen's aid and dropped the gloves with Mottau. Nielsen suffered head and leg injuries and will be re-evaluated.


Three Stars of the Game
1. Zach Parise: Three assists, +3
2. Brian Gionta: Goal and an assist, 6 shots
3. Bryce Salvador: First goal of the season
 
Slapshots: New Jersey outshot the Islanders 33-27…Hunter and Bergenheim led all Islanders with 6 shots and Mark Streit led with 22:23 of ice time…Islanders padded to their league lead in blocked shots, out-blocking the Devils shots 19-11…Doug Weight received an assist on Bergenheim's goal, giving him 986 career points, just 14 points shy of 1,000

 
ISLANDERS
Goaltenders
35 Joey MacDonald
1   Peter Mannino

Defensemen
24 Radek Martinek – 14 Chris Campoli
25 Andy Sutton – 2 Mark Streit
32 Brendan Witt – 8 Bruno Gervais

Forwards
93 Doug Weight – 13 Bill Guerin – 20 Sean Bergenheim
15 Jeff Tambellini – 51 Frans Nielsen – 7 Trent Hunter
11 Andy Hilbert – 12 Josh Bailey – 16 Jon Sim
28 Tim Jackman – 10 Richard Park – 49 Mitch Fritz
 

NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Goaltenders
1   Kevin Weekes
35 Scott Clemmensen

Defensemen
29 Johnny Oduya – 5 Colin White
24 Bryce Salvador – 7 Paul Martin
28 Anssi Salmela – 27 Mike Mottau

Forwards
9   Zach Parise – 19 Travis Zajac – 15 Jamie Langenbrunner
14 Brian Gionta – 26 Patrik Elias – 8 Danius Zubrus
20 Jay Pandolfo – 17 Mike Rupp – 23 David Clarkson
21 Barry Tallackson – 22 Petr Vrana – 2 Sheldon Brookbank