NHL Update: New York Islanders downed Ottawa Senators, 5-3
Rob Schremp lit the lamp twice, including the game winner goal early in final stanza, helping New York Islanders achieve a 5-3 victory over slumping Ottawa Senators, at Nassau Coliseum on
Saturday night.
Michael Grabner and Frans Nielsen each also tallied a goal and earned an assist for New York, which has won two of its previous three games. Matt Moulson scored another goal while Kevin Poulin
made 20 saves in the winning effort.
Chris Neil and Alex Kovalev both found the net for Ottawa, which has lost nine consecutive contests and has just one win in its previous 16 play-offs. Mike Fisher also supplied offense with
a goal in the loss.
Brian Elliott was beaten for three first-period goals on 13 shots and was pulled. Robin Lehner replaced him and finished the game in the net, turning aside 23-of-25 shots.
New York took control of the play by scoring three goals in the opening period.
Islanders got on the board first for 1-0 lead first in the fifth minute of the first period. The goal came when Jack Hillen released a shot to the net that was stopped, but Moulson grabbed
the rebound and stuffed it home.
However, just 13 seconds later, Ottawa took advantage of Islanders goalie’s miscue behind the net to tie the game, 1-1. It happened so when Poulin went to control a dumped puck behind the
net but got tied up which allowed Fisher to grab the puck and passed it to Neil in front. Neil then easily jammed the puck into the wide open empty net.
Islanders were back on top, 2-1, just before the halfway mark of the opening session. Grabner, from goal-mouth scramble, gathered a rebound of Nielsen’s shot and buried it into the net.
Ottawa knotted the game again with 7 ½ minutes to play in the first frame, as Fisher fired a shot from the left circle into the back of the net for his 14th goal of the season.
Senators notched their first and only lead of the game, 3-2, with three minutes left in the first period, as Kovalev ripped a shot from the outer edge of the right circle. However, New York
responded just 17 seconds later to tie it for the third time, 3-3, when Schremp tipped in a centring pass Jeremy Colliton.
The scoring subsided in the middle stanza as Elliott was pulled and replaced by Lehner, who saved all 12 shots he faced. Meanwhile, Poulin stopped eight shots in the goalless session.
New York opened the last stanza with a 5-on-3 advantage for the first two minutes because of a brawl that finished out the middle period. Lehner instigated the scuffle by elbowing Poulin
while the teams were moving off the ice, and was given a costly penalty.
The penalty paid dividends for New York, as Schremp chipped a rebound of Travis Hamonic’s shot from the slot that went between Lehner's pads for a 4-3 advantage at 1:40 mark of the third
period.
"It was nice to capitalize on that," Schremp said. "It was kind of a bad penalty for their goalie to take. It feels good to make them pay for it."
Islanders fended off a 6-on-4 advantage after Andy MacDonald was called for tripping and Lehner was benched for an extra skater. Nielsen accounted for the final scoring, 5-3, with a shorthanded,
empty netter with 5o seconds to play in the game.
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