Blake Comeau leads New York Islanders to 4-1 win over Minnesota Wild
Blake Comeau lit the lamp twice to help the New York Islanders thrash the Minnesota Wild 4-1 at Nassau Coliseum on Wednesday night.
Kyle Okposo and Andrew MacDonald each also tallied a goal for New York, who started a five-game home-stand with a win to snap a four-game losing streak. Al Montoya turned away 33-of-34 shots to earn the victory.
McDonald praised Montoya after the game by saying, "He gave us a big momentum boost. He kicked rebounds to the corners. He was under control and you can't say enough about the way he played."
John Madden was the lone scorer for Minnesota, who have not helped their playoff chances with six drops in their previous nine contests. Niklas Backstrom was beaten for three goals on 19 shots. He was later benched in favour of Jose Theodore, who finished
the game with 21 saves in the losing effort.
Minnesota forward Andrew Brunette was disappointed with his side’s performance. He said, "Definitely we were not sharp. Our energy looked a little low today and you cannot win in this league when you're like that."
The Islanders opened the scoring to take a 1-0 lead on a power-play just before the midway mark of the first stanza. Using some quick and fluid puck movement, Frans Neilsen slipped a sharp pass across the slot, where Comeau jammed the puck home from the
edge of the left circle.
New York then doubled their advantage with nearly one and a half minutes to play in the first period. The goal came when Okposo grabbed a loose puck in the slot. With a defender on his back, Okposo fired a backhanded shot between Backstrom's pads for his
fourth goal of the season.
The lead was extended to three goals early in the middle session. The goal came when Matt Martin led a charge down the left boards and ripped a wrist shot toward the net. Comeau followed the big rebound and lifted it over goalie's left shoulder to make it
3-0. Backstrom was pulled to the pine following the goal.
With just under four minutes remaining in the middle frame, New York ran away with the game by netting their fourth goal. This time the goal came from MacDonald, who blasted a slap shot from the left point and put the Islanders at a perfect 2-for-2 on the
power play.
The Wild finally scored a consolation goal to make it 4-1 on Madden's 10th goal of the season with eight and a half minutes left in the game. However, it didn't matter much, as the home team held on the rest of the way.
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