PA Parenteau is going to have nightmares tonight.
The winger had two legitimate scoring chances stopped cold by goaltender Jonas Hiller, then took the penalty which led to the goal that put his team down for the count, as the Isles fell to Anaheim, 4-2.
The Islanders had everything in place to win this game. They had been outshooting, outplaying and outdefending the Ducks to a T. Evgeni Nabokov was making the necessary saves, and though the faceoffs weren't there, everything else was right. The offense took a while to come, and indeed the Ducks were the ones to score first- Bobby Ryan flipped a backhand that beat Nabokov up high 14 minutes into the second period.
But the Islanders put their heads down and fought back, and two minutes later Matt Martin struck gold, tucking a lazy puck past the goal line to even up the score. After relying on Nabokov for a couple of extra saves, and getting sloppier as time progressed, Kyle Okposo got the Isles a brief lead off a pass from John Tavares.
And then everything went to hell.
Ironically, I was catching up on my Islanders website reading material and had just finishing loading an article about how the special teams were contributing to New York's success, when Gamecenter erupted. Bobby Ryan had scored a shorthanded goal, striding down the ice and completely embarrassing Andrew MacDonald in the process. Such hands I can't remember seeing (oh wait, yes I can... a certain #91. But that's beside the point).
After that, things just got worse. After drawing a penalty and getting robbed on two bona fide chances, as mentioned before, Parenteau took a tripping penalty that killed nearly half of the Isles' power play, allowing Ryan Getzlaf to break the 2-2 tie on the 4-on-4 situation- though, let's be honest, the defensive pairing on that play did next to nothing to stop Getz from breaking through. As someone said on Twitter afterward, "Easiest goal [he] ever scored," and that is not a good thing. Add in a Nabokov blunder and a goal by Teemu Selanne, and you've got the whole game.
Thus, the winning streak has ended for the Isles, and perhaps it's a good thing. I mean, before this game the team had gone to Disneyland and we were treated to funny tweets by Matt Martin and Michael Grabner, which is all well and good, but one has to wonder if perhaps the Islanders thought that playing against Anaheim would be much easier than it is. News flash: wrong-o. This team is still very talented, and Bobby Ryan alone is proof of that, his two-goal night giving him five goals in five games. Not to mention Getzlaf, another slumping star able to get a wake-up call against the Isles, and of course the aging but still legendary Selanne, who currently leads the Ducks in scoring. As for Hiller, he did what he needed to do, and the Islanders just couldn't solve him as well as they needed to.
On to Phoenix, and for God's sake, let's hope there's no implosion like there was tonight.
Until next time.
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