[HelloHockeyFans]

VYBORNY'S LATE GOAL SALVAGES TIE


David Vyborny (left) corrals a loose puck late in the third period of Tuesday
night's match against the Chicago Blackhawks. Moments later, Vyborny
would tie the game beating Michael Leighton with a high shot towards the
open cage.

UNIONDALE, NY - David Vyborny's 16th of the season on the powerplay with under two minutes remaining helped the Islanders salvage a point with the visiting Blackhawks in a 6-6 barn burner Tuesday night.

After holding a closed door meeting between players exclusively Sunday night after dropping a 5-1 affair versus the Nashville Predators, the Islanders rebounded Tuesday night firing 37 shots on total compared to their 11 last game, and even added some late game heroics to the storyline as David Vyborny's individual effort paid off tieing the game before the third period buzzer would sound two minutes later.

After winning the draw and pulling the puck back to his defender Brad Stuart, Jussi Jokinen circled back behind his net where Stuart left the puck for him but rather than clear the puck out of the zone while shorthanded, Jokinen attempted to stickhandle past a forechecking Vyborny who lifted the stick of the Chicago forward, stole the puck in the process and fired a quick shot into the open net with Leighton sliding in the wrong direction.

The unassisted goal drew the Islanders even at 18:01 and resulted in the game going to overtime where nothing was solved.

After Sunday's match where they were convincingly outmatched in every aspect of the game, the Islanders came out firing Tuesday night firing 13 shots on Chicago netminder Ed Belfour in the first twenty minutes jumping out to a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Mark Parrish (25) and Paul Kariya (23).

Kariya's second of the game in the second period would vault the Isles up by a pair as the new Islander took a perfect pass from teammate Danil Markov and beat Belfour with a sneaky shot through the goaltender's legs.

Jan Hrdina quickly replied for the Hawks less than 20 seconds later however, rifling a hot shot past Tomas Vokoun and Niko Kapanen would even the score before period's end jamming in a loose puck in the New York crease.

The third period would see six goals in total as each team would answer, exchanging goals for the final twenty minutes one after another. Alexander Mogilny (21), Brendan Morrison (16), and Jussi Jokinen (12) scored for Chicago, while Oleg Tverdovsky (7), Denis Arkhipov (17), and David Vyborny (16) would reply for the Islanders.

The Islanders finished the night with a 50% success rating on the powerplay going 1 for 2 on the night, while the Hawks failed to score with the man advantage going 0 for 2.

The Isles departed immediately following the game to Edmonton, Alberta as they prepare to face off against the Howe Conference leading Edmonton Oilers tomorrow evening.

Game Notes - Paul Kariya was named the game's first star for his 2 goal, 1 assist performance... Kariya had an astounding 33 minutes of icetime and fired an unbelievable 11 shots in the game... Two other Islanders also saw 30+ minutes on Tuesday as both Chris Drury and Danil Markov each topped the 32 minute mark... Last season's team-nominated "Unsung Hero", Jaroslav Bednar made his return to Uniondale, playing just under 10 minutes but failed to register any points.