Saturday, November 30, 2002
Columbus snapped a three-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Islanders.
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- The Columbus Blue Jackets used speed to beat the New York Islanders.
Ray Whitney scored twice on breakaways Friday to help the Blue Jackets snap a three-game losing streak and beat the Islanders, 4-2.
"We generated a lot more speed from the top of our circles through the neutral zone to their blue line," Columbus coach Dave King said. "Our speed game tonight was markedly better than it has been in the last three or four games."
Andrew Cassels and Rick Nash also scored for the Blue Jackets, while Geoff Sanderson and Mike Sillinger each had a pair of assists.
Denis wins ninth
Marc Denis picked up his ninth win in goal by making 29 saves.
"He played so steady," King said of his goaltender. "He made some spectacular saves, especially on wraparound attempts, which are always tough for goalies to stop."
Columbus has never lost to the Islanders, winning three of four meetings with one tie. The Blue Jackets won both times they visited Nassau Coliseum.
Jason Blake and Alexei Yashin scored for the Islanders, who lost for the first time in six games (3-1-2-0).
Chris Osgood started in goal for the Islanders and made four saves before being relieved by Garth Snow, who turned aside 20 shots.
The Islanders' defense was lacking as Columbus took a quick 2-0 lead.
Whitney took a pass from Grant Marshall at center ice and broke in alone on Osgood. The goalie got a piece of his low glove-side wrist shot, but the puck rolled off his pads and over the line at 2:54.
The Blue Jackets made it 2-0 at 4:31 on a delayed penalty when Sanderson's breakaway back-hander was stopped by Osgood.
Sanderson grabbed the rebound and passed to Jody Shelley, whose wrist shot was stopped by Osgood. That rebound was put in by an uncovered Cassels.
Whitney scored on another Islanders mistake during a bad line change. He broke in alone and sneaked a wrist shot underneath Osgood at 13:29.
"They had a lot of guys caught," Whitney said. "Combine that with the speed we showed tonight, and it gave us a lot of chances to cash in."
Snow in relief
Snow came in at that point, relieving a visibly angry Osgood.
"I think there were four breakaways and three 2-on-1s in the period," Osgood said. "It was like that a few weeks ago when we were losing -- making those mistakes in the first period, which led to a loss of confidence."
Islanders coach Peter Laviolette was angry with his entire team, except Osgood, yet it was the goalie who was made an example.
"He shouldn't be happy," Laviolette said. "The goals he let in were a result of poor defense and missed assignments, but I wish he had come up with one or two of them. But he's been making saves like that for the last four or five games. I don't blame this game on Osgood."
Even blameless, Osgood wondered why he was taken out.
"This is probably the most angry I've been this year," Osgood said. "It's frustrating."