The Islanders locker room was locked moments after their throttling of the Lightning, and Rick DiPietro was forced to repeatedly slam into the door in a futile attempt to get in.
It was about the only thing that didn’t go smoothly for the goalie and his teammates last night.
It was a stark contrast from their previous effort, when DiPietro was yanked and Carolina drilled the Islanders, 8-3 after a weeklong layoff. Last night, DiPietro was in fine form, stopping 28 shots in a 4-0 win in front of 11,008 at Nassau Coliseum.
“Those superstars have a great way of coming back and having a super performance,” Ted Nolan said of DiPietro’s performance against a high-octane Tampa Bay team. “The last game was just one of those games.”
This one was different.
After the team honored Mike Sillinger, who played in his 1000th career regular season game, the center responded with an assist on the game’s first goal, a soft one by Bill Guerin that slipped through Marc Denis’ five-hole.
“That first goal was big,” DiPietro said after his first shutout of the season.
The Islanders never looked back. Josef Vasicek made it 2-0 in the second, tipping in a deflection before Ruslan Fedotenko knocked in a Mike Comrie rebound later in the period. Trent Hunter put the match away in the third.
But with the way DiPietro played, the match likely was over before Hunter’s goal. He made several splendid saves, including two in the first period and was helped by the post twice.
“Ricky was the backbone,” Sillinger said. “That’s a tough team to keep off the board. They have some premier players.”
Though Tampa Bay has lost three in a row to the local teams in recent days, the Lightning still have Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis.
DiPietro said he was ready to get back on the ice long before last night.
“You’d like to get back the next night,” he said. “It’s tough to sit there and think of what you did wrong.”
There won’t be much of that to reflect upon from this night. As good as DiPietro was, the team also looked to Sillinger, who has been on 12 teams in a 17-year career that has led him to the 1000-game milestone.
“He’s a well-rounded player,” Nolan said. “He’s contributed everywhere he’s went and is loved by his teammates.”
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Al Arbour, who will return to coach his 1500th game with the Islanders tomorrow, was at the Coliseum last night. He turned 75 and was serenaded with a rendition of Happy Birthday from the crowd.
Islanders 4 Lightning 0