New York Islanders fight off Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in shootout -NHL Update
New York Islanders have caught fire and are not looking to cool down any time soon as they earned their third straight victory in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season by fighting of the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3, on Tuesday night, January 3, 2012, at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.
Islanders’ rookie, John Tavares, was in top notch form during their Tuesday night contest as he picked up three assists, which were crucial to them, staying alive in the contest to battle a raging Hurricanes’ team.
Carolina is now on a two-game losing streak after facing a 5-2 loss against Tampa Bay Lightning in their previous matchup on Saturday.
New York’s win got them the extra two points they needed to move out of the last place in the Eastern Conference, now putting Carolina at number 15 with 33 points.
"No one wants to be in last place", said PA Parenteau, who scored the first goal of the shootout. "We're not looking behind right now. We've got to play a little better than that if we're going to catch these teams. But I think we have the team to do it, to get on a good ride right now".
Matt Moulson took advantage of an early Carolina penalty as Bryan Allen was booked for holding with a minor penalty, allowing him to get the goal past Hurricanes’ goalie, Cam Ward, 3:40 into the opening period.
Anthony Stewart followed quickly with the equaliser, less than a minute later, which put Carolina right back in the contest with 1-1 at the end of the first 20 minutes.
Brandon Sutter added the tie-breaker in favour of Hurricanes, 3:13 into the second period, for his ninth of the regular season in a penalty-less phase.
Tuomo Ruutu’s penalty in the opening five minutes of the third period gave Carolina a major setback as Frans Nielsen took advantage and levelled the score once again.
Chad LaRose tried to break the tie again but Kyle Okposo’s seventh goal at the 18:30 mark gave New York the chance to get the win in overtime, or in this case, a shootout.
Nielsen made the deciding shot in the shootout as Carolina and New York made their first attempts, but Hurricanes failed to add anymore after that.
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