The New York Islanders are currently an NHL playoff team, but they have really struggled during the month of March. Coming into today's game with the Anaheim Ducks, they had only obtained a total of 9 points during the 11 games they had played in this month. As they are in their final season out in Uniondale, as they are planning on moving into Brooklyn next year, this has been a rather disappointing ending for the Long Island faithful.
In the opening period, both teams were able to get on the board. The Ducks started the scoring with just over 11 minutes remaining in the period when Rickard Rakell ending the 0-0 tie by scoring his 8th goal of the season, and it was assisted by Patrick Maroon. With just under 3 minutes left in the period the Islanders tied up the game when Lubomir Visnovsky was able to get the first goal past Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen on the afternoon, for his 5th goal of the season. His goal was assisted by Ryan Strome and Thomas Hickey.
The Ducks owned the second period of the game as they scored within the opening two minutes of the period when Kyle Palmieri got his 14th goal of the season with assists from Matt Beleskey and James Wisniewski. His teammate Andrew Cogliano would get his 14th goal of the season as well later in the period with an assist from Cam Fowler. Andersen should get a lot of credit for the Ducks shutting out the Islanders in this period as the Ducks committed all four penalties that occurred in this game during this second period, and the Islanders had no penalties the whole game. The defense in general was strong though, because the Islanders only had 9 shots on goal in the whole period. Michal Neuvirth would not give up anymore goals the rest of the game as the Ducks only got 3 past him in a little bit over 58 minutes of action.
With just over 6 minutes left in the game, the Islanders got a goal of little consequence as Casey Cizikas was able to score an unassisted goal for his 8th goal of the season.
The Anaheim Ducks (48-22-7, 103 pts) are now in first place in the Western Conference as they keep ahead of the Nashville Predators. The Ducks continue their East Coast trip as they go to the Prudential Center on Sunday night to face the New Jersey Devils (31-31-12, 74 pts).
The New York Islanders (44-27-5, 93 pts) remain a few points ahead of the Boston Bruins as they want to remain in the race for the Stanley Cup, and they only have 6 games remaining. They will stay at home and play the Detroit Red Wings (40-22-12, 92 pts) on Sunday at 5 PM ET.