Maybe it took facing an old friend for the Islanders to dust off the memories of what it’s like to score.
With former Islander Jason Blake and the Maple Leafs at Nassau Coliseum, Mike Comrie scored one of the Isles’ three goals in the first period last night, then knocked in his second goal of the match, an overtime game-winner to beat Toronto 4-3.
After Richard Park took a hooking penalty 2:17 into the overtime, the fate of a crucial point for the Isles lay on backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz. Starter Rick DiPietro pulled himself after the first period with a right knee injury after giving up two goals on nine shots. DiPietro will not make the trip to Ottawa and will be reevaluated today.
After DiPietro left, Dubielewicz proceeded to make save after save (23 in all), preserving Comrie’s opportunity Comrie to end the game.
“Give Wade a lot of credit. He’s been working his tail off in practice,” coach Ted Nolan said. “Call him Mr. Clutch or what have you, but he was good.”
The Isles led 3-2 after the first period, but following a scoreless second, Dubielewicz gave up the game-tying goal to Alexander Steen (his second of the night) with a wrist shot over his blocker 1:15 into the third.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s hard,” Dubielewicz said about playing once in the last 54 days. “It’s tough bringing that intensity when you’re not in there everyday, but I got a couple solid saves and then got into a grove.”
Before last night, the Islanders were last in the NHL with a paltry 78 goals (2.29 per), which made many fans think about the 40 goals Blake took with him to Toronto. It was exactly one year to the day that Blake scored his 21st goal of the season in a 2-0 romp of the Rangers, which would have been salt in the wound if Comrie couldn’t find that back of the net for his 10th of the year.
“When you lose your starting goaltender it’s always hard,” Comrie said. “But [Wade] played great, we had a big penalty kill and we got a goal at the end when we needed it.”
bcyrgalis@nypost.com
OVERTIME Islanders 4 Maple Leafs 3