This was a game that teetered on the brink of disaster all night, as the Islanders spent significant portions of time staring at the most disheartening of outcomes.
And it wasn’t until the final horn sounded that it all seemed real, that Saturday night’s 5-4 shootout win over the Red Wings at the Coliseum had actually happened. But it wasn’t without a touch of bad news, as goalie Evgeni Nabokov left the game with a groin injury 4:12 into the first period, after giving up a goal on the first shot he faced.
Coach Jack Capuano said the 38-year-old Nabokov will be reevaluated on Monday, but he is expecting him to miss “a couple weeks, for sure.”
Nabokov was replaced for the remainder of the game by Kevin Poulin, who started the season as the presumed backup but had earned his way into the previous three straight starts.
And the 23-year-old netminder held his own in this one — including making all three saves in the shootout — allowing Frans Nielsen’s lone tally in the skills competition to give the Islanders (8-10-3) the much-needed two points.
“I thought he played excellent,” Capuano said of Poulin, who made 19 saves in 49:50 of time, then stopped an unbelievably talented trio of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi in the shootout, handing the Red Wings (9-6-6) their sixth loss in a row, and fifth straight in a shootout or overtime. “With Nabby probably being out for a little bit of time, it’s good to see him come in a play confident.”
The Islanders had played a solid game all around, yet continually found a way to crumble just at the most precious of moments. When Pierre-Marc Bouchard gave them a 4-3 lead early in the third, it was erased with just 42.5 seconds remaining, as Datsyuk tossed a backhand to the net that banked in off a sprawled-out Andrew MacDonald to tie it.
“As goalie doing backup duty, you have to be ready for anything,” Poulin said. “You have to jump in there and make the saves.”
The first two periods was a wild back-and-forth affair, with the Islanders going up early in the first on a tip-in goal from John Tavares, negated just nine seconds later when Darren Helm had a breakaway and beat Nabokov high stick side, the goalie extending his right leg and writhing to the ice in pain.
“It sucks, I was right there, chasing [Helm], trying to get back,” said Tavares, who has 25 points on the season and is now tied with the Penguins Sidney Crosby for the league lead. “We put Nabby in such a tough spot early in the game when he’s still getting into it. Obviously tough to see him go down.”
The Red Wings ended the first with a 2-1 lead after Datsyuk’s first of the game, but Casey Cizikas tied it 2-2 late in the second. That was followed by offsetting goals from Johan Franzen and Brock Nelson, which allowed the third period to start 3-3.
“We could have easily gotten down,” Capuano said. “The bench was good, the guys were good, and we battled.”
Now the Islanders are off to Toronto on Tuesday to start a three-game road trip, as Poulin will be playing without the safety net of Nabokov.
“He’s been a big part of our team,” Tavares said of Nabokov. “A lot of people don’t always see what he means in our locker room. He’s a tremendous guy and a tremendous presence. So we hope it’s not too serious and he’s back soon.”