LATE RALLY EARNS TIE
UNIONDALE, NY - A pair of goals in the third period helped the Islanders claim a single point against the Quebec Nordiques on Saturday.
They peppered the Nordique goalie with 10 shots in the third period in addition to the 12 they fired in the second, but the young expansion club tender was equal to the task, turning aside 26 of the 29 shots he faced to preserve the tie for the Quebec Nordiques.
It was a battle of the youngsters on Saturday as rookie Maxime Daigneault started for the Islanders, stopping 23 shots of the 26 he faced extending his unbeaten streak now to two games. In his first two starts of his young career, Daigneault has compiled a 2.00 GAA and a 0.926 sv% earning one victory and one tie in the process.
"I'd like to have a few of those back tonight but I'm happy we got a point," Daigneault said afterwards.
The Islanders opened the scoring in the first period when captain Mathieu Schneider fired in a shot from the point on the powerplay past a screened Ty Conklin with Markus Naslund, of all people, causing havoc in front of the Nordiques goalie.
From that point on until the third period though, the Nordiques would be the only ones to score as Audette, Sjostrom, and Karpovtsev would all beat Daigneault to build up a 3-1 lead heading into the third.
The Islanders would rally though led by a pair of goals, both from defenceman as DONT PANIC YANNICK PART DEUX (Yannick Tremblay) would score at 3:26 of the third to draw the Isles within one, with Chris Chelios adding another 4 minutes later to tie the game.
Overtime solved nothing despite the Nordiques being awarded the man-advantage when Adrian Aucoin was sent to the sin-bin for boarding Scott Ferguson.
With the tie, the Isles find themselves in a four-way tie for 6th in the potent Gretzky Conference. The Islanders next game is on Monday when two former Hawks hope to exact a little revenge on their former club in Chicago.
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