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HOSSA NIPS FORMER TEAM


Marcel Hossa (right) celebrates his second goal of the game against his
former team the Tampa Bay Lightning.

UNIONDALE, NY - Marcel Hossa scored twice against his former teammates to lead the Islanders to a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Islanders' offence came to life once again in its second straight game, this time scoring six goals to eventually come out victorious over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.

The victory was probably savoured by nobody more than young Marcel Hossa, who was acquired by the Islanders last week in a deal involving defenceman Yannick Tremblay.

Hossa tallied his 9th and 10th goals of the season helping the Islanders improve their record to 11-9-6-2 with 30 points in total, good enough for a four-way tie for 4th in the Gretzky Conference.

Also scoring for the Islanders were Pavel Brendl (9th), improving his goal-scoring streak to 6 games, David Vyborny (8th), Chris Drury (17th), and Mark Parrish (10th).

With the departure of Yannick Tremblay last week, the Islanders called up Keith Ballard from its minor league affiliate on Sunday. The young defenceman impressed playing on the top pairing with Sergei Gonchar, finishing with an assist on the game-winner by Mark Parrish in the third period.

Derek Roy, who joined the Islanders the same time as Ballard also saw game-action registering 5 shots on goal.

Both teams' forwards seemed to have the goalies' numbers tonight as fans saw four different goalies take the ice. Jocelyn Thibault of the Islanders was pulled in the second period in favour of Cristobal Huet after Tomas Holmstrom beat him with a weak wrister, and Mathieu Garon came in relief of Chris Osgood also in the second period after Chris Drury put the Isles up by a 5-3 margin.

The Islanders would end up having the last laugh however, when Mark Parrish finished off a nice pass from rookie Keith Ballard with a howitzer from just inside the Tampa Bay blueline which proved to be the game-deciding goal.

Game Notes - Chris Drury had a goal and two assists... good enough to be named the game's third star... Jordan Leopold was named the game's second star with his 2 assist, +4 performance... Young Marcel Hossa won the first star honours with 2 goal, 1 assist night... Sergei Gonchar is still searching for his first goal as an Islander but added two assists against the Lightning.