New York Islanders douse Calgary Flames

After a tense opening period, Mikhail Grabobski’s powerplay goal gave the Islanders the lead in the second before Frans Nielsen bagged a brace and Cal Clutterbuck scored to wrap up a convincing victory. The Islanders look to build off of this win and Halak’s great start on Thursday when they play host to another struggling team, the Carolina Hurricanes (2-6-0).

There’ll be no chorus singing “New York, New York”, by Frank Sinatra on the plane ride to the next city on the Calgary Flames’ road trip. “And every point is huge for us”. “So overall, a pretty good weekend”.

In the evening’s other game Jonathan Toews gave Chicago Blackhawks a 1-0 overtime win over Anaheim Ducks. They’re in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 28th. “I thought everybody contributed”. “When we scored that first goal, it dampened their spirits and picked us up”.

Said Nielsen, “I think we can only get better from here”. “We’ve had a lot of chances in the first period, maybe a little snake-bitten”. “Everyone is doing a good job”. Grabovski took a pass from center Josh Bailey, who was stationed along the left boards, and fired a shot under the right armpit of Flames goalie Joni Ortio.

Nielsen made it 2-0 with his second of the season 5:26 into the third period. Seven minutes later, the Flames mounted their most serious threat against Halak, but it ended with left winger Johnny Gaudreau’s shot bouncing off Halak’s pads.

Clutterbuck scored with 8:27 left, and Okposo’s goal with 1:50 remaining handed the Flames their third loss of the season by four goals.

“We can’t have too many more of these or it will get away from us pretty quickly”, Flames captain Mark Giordano said. They have yet to lead after two periods and they have yet to score more than three goals in a game.

Grabovski, who scored the overtime victor in a 3-2 win at St. Louis on Saturday, beat Flames goaltender Joni Ortio with a snap shot on the power play with just under 6 minutes left in the middle period.

“We were rewarded tonight with a few goals we deserved”, Islanders captain John Tavares said. “We just stuck with it”.

The Islanders came out strong, determined to get pucks and bodies to the net on Ortio, a 24-year-old making his first start of the season. “Wanted to make sure his conditioning was where it needed to be, and it’s paying dividends right now for us”.

The Ducks were shut out for the second straight game and became the first National Hockey League team since the New York Americans in 1930-31 to be shut out five times in their first eight games of the season.