The New York Islanders had a few days off since their last matchup, and they showed it when they came onto the ice for Friday night's game against the Ottawa Senators. They simply started the game looking a little bit rusty in one of their final home games at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The first period was a quiet one with very little action. The Senators outshot the Islanders 9-6 and the only penalty was a 2 minute minor on Ryan Strome for tripping midway through the period. But that was about all that was going to happen, as both Andrew Hammond and Jaroslav Halak were both strong in the net.

Matt Puempel scored his second goal of the season in the second period assisted by Mika Zibanejad and Patrick Wiercioch. The young left winger, Matt Puempel, scored his first goal of the season on Tuesday, and considering the fact that he has only played 8 games this season, could be a young prospect to watch. His teammate, Kyle Turris, added a second goal, which would be the one to decide the game, which was assisted by Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone. The New York Islanders had 22 shots on goal in the period but could not get past the glove of Andrew Hammond.

Tyler Kennedy would finally get one past Hammond with right around 8 minutes left in the final period, but that would be the final goal of the game for the Islanders as they would miss another critical opportunity to get points this week. Lubomir Visnovsky and Nikolay Kulemin were able to get some points by assisting on the goal. The Senators were able to get the win 2-1 and get the two points themselves, and since they are ninth in the Eastern Conference, trying to catch Boston, that is very important.

The Ottawa Senators (32-24-11, 75 pts) will next travel back home to play the Philadelphia Flyers (28-27-14, 70 pts) on Sunday night at 7 PM EST. Meanwhile the New York Islanders (43-23-4, 90 pts) will have the second part of a back to back against the Montreal Canadiens (42-19-7, 91 pts) at 7 PM EST on Saturday night.

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About the author
Caleb Wahlgren
I will not deny that I am a big fan of the Green Bay Packers. But I love the NFL and want to see the very best for it.