While the Islanders have struggled as the guest this
season, they have had success at Nassau Coliseum. Days before beginning its
longest road trip of the season, New York hopes to notch a fourth straight
home win tonight in a test with the visiting Atlanta Thrashers.
New York dropped a 2-1 contest in New Jersey last night, falling to 1-4-3 as
the road team. Frans Nielsen scored the first goal of Friday night's game, but
the Devils notched the next two, as former Islander netminder Yann Danis made
23 saves versus the Islanders.
Martin Biron stopped 29 shots for New York, which is 4-2-2 at home this year.
"We didn't allow ourselves to build off the momentum of scoring that [first-
period] goal," said Islanders head coach Scott Gordon. "In the second period,
we weren't efficient on our forecheck and we took penalties."
New York has now lost two straight, both on the road, following a four-game
winning streak, and saw defenseman Radek Martinek leave last night's game with
an apparent leg injury.
Tonight is the Islanders' final home game until November 25, as they embark on
a seven-game road trip starting Wednesday in Washington.
The Thrashers come into this contest having lost five of their last seven
games (2-4-1). They had won two straight road games before suffering a 4-3
setback to the visiting Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Tobias Enstrom notched a goal and an assist, while Bryan Little and Pavel
Kubina each lit the lamp in defeat. Ondrej Pavelec was charged with four goals
on 21 shots in the loss.
"A few bad bounces out there tonight," said Kubina after the game. "I thought
we played pretty well and deserved better than the results of the game. We've
been talking about our slow starts for pretty much all of our home games and
we just have to be sharp."
Rich Peverley had a career-best eight-game point streak come to an end, while
Nik Antropov was held off the scoresheet for the first time six games.
Peverley had five goals and seven assists over his run, while Antropov had
totaled eight helpers over a five-game assist streak.
Atlanta is 5-1-1 on the road this season.
The Thrashers have won five of their last eight over the Islanders, taking two
straight on Long Island.
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