Islanders 5
Ducks 3
These are the games the Islanders should win.
Against the inferior Ducks, the surging Isles threw their weight around like a big man in Sizzler and won by a knockout, 5-3, in front of another sellout Coliseum crowd.
Mark Parrish scored his second hat trick of the season, including the first short-handed goal of his career, as the first-place Islanders (15-5-2-1) bullied the Disney Ducks (6-14-3-0).
“If someone told me I was gonna come out and have a start like this,” Parrish said, “I probably would have driven him to the loony bin myself.”
The three goals raised Parrish’s wild and crazy season total to 16 and broke a seven-game scoreless run for the right wing. Michael Peca (1-2-3) and Mariusz Czerkawski (0-2-2) helped to fasten a straitjacket around the ugly Ducklings as the Islanders’ collected their fourth win in a row, strengthening their grip on the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
In a 21-second burst, Peca assisted on Parrish’s first goal and scored his sixth of the season as the Islanders sailed ahead of the Ducks, 3-1, at 8:18 of the second period.
Before the Parrish goal at 7:57 – on a slick move around Vitaly Vishnevski from behind the net to beat goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere – was even finished being announced, Peca potted his second goal in two nights as the Islanders refused to let the Ducks up for air.
Giguere (13 saves) was immediately pulled after Peca’s whistling wrist shot, in favor of Steve Shields, who finished with eight stops.
“We were playing against a desperate, young, hard-working team that had nothing to lose,” Isles coach Peter Laviolette said.
Roman Hamrlik tied the game, 1-1, on a floater thrown at the net from long range that got a screen from Jason Krog, battling Pavel Trnka in front of the Ducks’ net at 16:54 of the first.
Making his fourth start of the year, Garth Snow finished with 34 saves, including a showstopper with 11:29 left in the game to rob Matt Cullen on a wraparound attempt, just before Marty McInnis cut the Isles’ lead to 5-2 with 10:53 remaining.
“Garth has put in some big efforts for us,” Laviolette said.
Paul Kariya snapped a wrister past Snow with 7:26 remaining in the game for Anaheim’s third goal. The assist came from Trnka, with whom Kariya got into a fist fight in practice earlier this week.
“I thought we were a little tired coming off [Friday’s win over Toronto],” Peca said, “but we just worked through it.”
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RW Raffi Torres (13 shifts, 7:01) and C Jason Krog (11, 8:20) were recalled from AHL Bridgeport . . . In the last three games against Colorado, Toronto and Anaheim), the Isles have sold 48,009 of 48,702 tickets . . . Isles scratches last night were LWs Shawn Bates (groin), Oleg Kvasha (shoulder) and C Mats Lindgren . . . C Claude Lapointe played in his 700th NHL game . . . Steve Webb (instigating, 10-minute misconduct) and Kevin Sawyer tangled in the only fight at 2:55 of the first . . . The current four-win streak ties the longest year for the Isles, who started the season 4-0, and raises the team’s home record to 7-1-1-1.
