Islanders snap Canucks' streak
Associated Press
12/3/2002
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) - Another Vancouver Canucks winning streak went down at the hands of Chris Osgood and the New York Islanders.
Alexei Yashin scored with just 1:32 left to stop the Canucks' best winning streak ever at 10 games and lift the Islanders to a 2-1 victory Tuesday night.
The streak is the longest in the NHL this season.
Vancouver won its last five at home and on the road before running into nemesis Osgood. The New York goalie is unbeaten in his last 11 starts against the Canucks (8-0-3) and is 11-1-4 against them in his career.
Last season, Vancouver also came to Long Island with a team-record five-game winning streak on the road only to be turned away by Osgood and the Islanders.
The 10 games without a loss was also the best unbeaten streak in the history of the Canucks, who finish a six-game road trip Wednesday at New Jersey. They went 12-1 in November and hadn't lost since falling 4-0 at Dallas on Nov. 6.
Yashin's eighth goal extended his points streak to nine games.
Claude Lapointe rushed the puck up the right side and sent a shot in on Canucks goalie Dan Cloutier. The rebound popped in front where Yashin beat Ed Jovanovski - who was facing the goal instead of the forward - and lifted the puck over Cloutier.
The Canucks trailed 1-0 for most of the game, but got the tying goal just 3:39 into the third period. Sami Salo scored his second goal of the season by sending a screened wrist shot past a screened Osgood.
Vancouver was 0-3-1 this season when trailing after two periods, while the Islanders were 6-0 when ahead through 40 minutes. In the end, those numbers held up.
The first period belonged to the Islanders, who took advantage of the road-weary Canucks and outshot them 13-7. New York had a 1-0 lead before the Canucks had a shot at Osgood. They didn't record their first shot until 4:19 elapsed.
But the Islanders were only able to convert one Vancouver mistake despite being handed the puck several times by the careless Canucks defencemen.
Kenny Jonsson dumped the puck in the Vancouver zone and it clanged off the skate of Canucks defenceman Mattias Ohlund and right to charging forward Michael Peca.
Suddenly, the Islanders had a 2-on-1 advantage, and Peca quickly slid the puck to his right where Arron Asham took it and ripped his third goal of the season past Cloutier just 2:56 in.
It was just the fourth time in 11 games that the Canucks didn't score first. They had only trailed 32 minutes, 59 seconds out of the 600 minutes played in their 10-game streak.
Cloutier was outstanding in turning back New York and keeping the Canucks in the game through the first 40 minutes. Playing for the 23rd time in Vancouver's 25 games, the NHL's winningest goalie this season made 12 saves in the first period and 15 more in the second, while the Canucks only managed 12 shots on Osgood.
It wasn't just the Canucks defencemen who looked off their game. For about 30 seconds of the first period, Vancouver played with just four men after no one jumped on when forward Todd Bertuzzi skated off. The Islanders, however, didn't even manage a shot.
Notes: Vancouver in 9-2-2 on the road this season. ... Clark Gillies, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this year, was honoured before the game. Gillies, whose No. 9 is retired by the Islanders, was a member of all four of their Stanley Cup championship teams (1980-83). ... New York swept Vancouver for the Cup in 1982. ... LW Daniel Sedin, who scored the game-winning goal in two of Vancouver's three previous victories, was a healthy scratch. His twin brother, Henrik, played his 189th straight NHL game - having never missed one. ... The Canucks also had a 10-game unbeaten streak in March 1977 (5-0-5). ... It was the fifth time Vancouver had a five-game road winning streak.
Cheers,
Aquaman