New York Islanders swamp Florida Panthers in 5-1 blowout at Nassau Coliseum
Matt Moulson scored his second career hat trick, as the New York Islanders swamped Florida Panthers in a 5-1 blowout at Nassau Coliseum on Monday night.
“Our focus is getting as many wins as we can,” Moulson said. “We’re kind of under the radar. Everybody talks about the Devils and how well they’re playing right now. Maybe we’ll catch a couple of teams off-guard.”
Radek Martinek and Josh Bailey both also notched goals for the Islanders, who held a 22-3 edge in shots.
Al Montoya, acquired from Phoenix Coyotes on 9th February, made 20 saves of 21 shots for Islanders, who improved to 8-3-0 in February. “People want to knock us down every day, from what I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Montoya, said. “You want to play that
underdog role. You go out there and play hard and show the rest of the league what you can do.”
New York head coach Jack Capuano said the players were having fun and were playing with the team concept.
Tomas Vokoun gave up four goals on 36 shots for Florida, which has lost five of its previous seven contests.
“I’m not going to let our guys off the hook and I’m not going to discredit what [the Islanders] did. They played a real good game,” said Panthers head coach Peter DeBoer.
The Panthers went without a shot for the first two periods. “We didn’t start as well as we wanted, and I don’t know why,” Mike Santorelli said.
Moulson, who tallied the last two goals in Saturday's 3-0 home victory over the Los Angeles Kings, provided another strong performance with a pair of goals in the opening stanza against the Panthers.
The Islanders got on the board for 1-0 lead at 7:40 into the first period, when Moulson received a pass from behind the net from John Tavares and blasted a shot past Florida netminder. The goal came less than two minutes after defenseman Jack Hillen hit
a shot off the post. That was Florida’s last break. With five minutes remaining in the first period, Moulson gave New York a 2-0 edge when he rifled a one-timer from the left circle for his 25th goal of the season.
Later in the first stanza, New York had an opportunity to extend its lead when Panthers forward Stephan Weiss caught Martinek with an elbow. Weiss was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Martinek added a power play goal just 37 seconds into the middle stanza when he ripped a slap shot from the point that deflected off Panthers’ Jack Skille and beat goalie Vokoun.
Montoya lost a bid for his third shutout when Mike Santorelli tallied a power play goal with less than ten minutes left in the second period.
At the 6:41 mark, Josh Bailey extended Islanders’ lead to 4-0. With less than three minutes to play, Moulson completed the hat trick and took the team lead in goals by hitting an empty net.
Tags: