DON’T MIND ME: Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro makes a save on a shot by the Hurricanes’ Eric Staal, but it was three saves the oft-injured netminder couldn’t make in the first half of the third period that gave Carolina a 6-4 victory last night. (
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Rick DiPietro skated onto the ice at Nassau Coliseum last night for his second start of the season, greeted by boos that seemed too loud to match the smattering of fans spread throughout the arena. The punchlines were prepared.
But heading into the third period, the oft-injured, much-maligned goalie was in position for his first win since Dec. 3, 2011, with the Islanders leading the Hurricanes 3-2.
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Then, the inevitable Acme anvil came crashing down.
Despite scoring four power-play goals, the Islanders lost their fifth straight game, 6-4, after allowing three consecutive goals in the first half of the final period. Filling in for Evgeni Nabokov, who had played the previous seven games, DiPietro made 25 saves on 30 shots.
“It’s a tough game. The difference between winning and losing is so small, it’s one mistake here, one bad bounce there,” DiPietro said. “I felt good. It’s a joy to be out there playing, to be honest. Sitting around, watching these guys from the rafters last year, the last couple years, there’s nothing you can do. You feel helpless. It’s nice to compete and this is a great group of guys.”
The Islanders (4-7-1) hadn’t trailed heading into the third period, and the fans settled into a short-term amnesia, showering the 31-year-old netminder with genuine praise. But the cheers soon developed a Bronx flavor, beginning when Jiri Tlusty tied the game at 3-3 on a tip-in 30 seconds into the period.
The go-ahead goal came five minutes later, as Alexander Semin unintentionally threw a pass off the arm of Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic and past a befuddled DiPietro. The rancor reached its boiling point with 10:41 left in the third, as DiPietro allowed his fifth goal of the game, this time on a Tlusty redirection, which ricocheted in off the skate of Eric Staal.
Islanders coach Jack Capuano wouldn’t comment on DiPietro’s play after the game, but the fans unleashed a round of “DP sucks” chants — easily the loudest soundtrack of the evening.
“It’s funny, when the power play gets going and scores a couple goals, you get a game like this where the puck’s bouncing off people’s chests and everything else going in the net,” DiPietro said. “You just continue to work hard. We didn’t get the bounces, but if we work hard like we did we’re going to win more games than we lose.”
DiPietro had support from the drop of the puck, most importantly from an Islanders power play that had gone scoreless in its past 22 attempts.
Frans Nielsen opened the scoring, with his first goal of the season, less than three minutes into the game, and John Tavares gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead with 14:37 left in the second period on a soft backhand. The Hurricanes (6-4-1) tied the game 29 seconds later, but Matt Moulson put the Islanders back ahead less than two minutes later on a pass from Brad Boyes.
Trailing 5-3 in the third, Moulson scored again to cut the lead with less than nine minutes remaining, but the Islanders were unable to capitalize on one last power play, eventually surrendering a Tlusty empty-netter with 10.3 seconds left.
“We’ve got to find a way 5-on-5 to generate some offense. The power play was good tonight, but it’s not going to be there every night,” Capuano said. “Adversity is something you go through in life and right now we’re going through it. You got to keep battling. We just got to maintain our focus. We can’t lose our focus.”