via cache.daylife.com

The Islanders beat the Avs 3-2 in a game hyped as a matchup between 2009's 1st and 3rd overall draft picks. Instead, we got a fairly boring game (or maybe I just found it so after the awesome Canada/USA WJC game last night) where Duchene was stymied by Dwayne Roloson and John Tavares was invisible except when getting whacked in the face by Kyle Quincey. In fact, Tavares owes Roloson a drink for keeping him in the rookie scoring lead with three outstanding stops on Duchene.

The game started off well when Chris Stewart tipped in a John Michael Liles shot on the powerplay. The Avs continued to play well for the first half of the 1st but the Islanders got a hardworking goal from Jon Sim and took the momentum. In the 2nd the Islanders got their first powerplay and, as if Avs fans weren't already sick of seeing that bloody Toews goal over and over, Rob Schremp scored an awesome goal by snagging the puck out of mid air, dropping the puck and batting it in baseball style. In the 3rd the Avs pressured and got the first 9 shots on goal. The fourth line, which was excellent all night, tied it up on a Matt Hendricks goal. Shortly there after, however, Kyle Okposo scored off a 3 on 1 rush thanks to Kyle Cumiskey (who other than this had a solid game) blowing a tire while pinching in the Islanders zone. 

A few more notes:  

* Wolski, who was moved down to Duchene's line, was outstanding all night long even though he was pointless.

* Wilson had a couple of big hits. I think that the Avs actually won one against the Flames, netting Wilson and a 2nd round pick for Leopold.

* Did anybody miss Clark? I sure didn't.

* I like the pairing of Cumiskey and Hannan. Frees up Cumiskey to act as a fourth forward with the Avs best defensive d-man back to cover for him. Didn't work out this game but I hope that Sacco keeps them together.

* Speaking of Sacco, why is he determined to run Anderson into the ground?

Dustin's Three Stars of the Game

3rd - Kyle Okposo - had the game on his stick scored a hell of goal.

2nd - Rob Schremp - great all night long. An assist and a ridiculous goal.

1st - Dwayne Roloson - solid all night and had four or five incredible saves.

Minus of the game - I'm gonna say Paul Statsny. Did he even play?