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ISLES SQUASH LEAFS


Islanders defenceman Alexander Karpovtsev pins Toronto forward Marc Savard along the boards Monday night.

TORONTO, ON - Tomas Vokoun made 34 saves and was named the game's first star as the Islanders rolled over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Air Canada Centre by a score of 5-1.

It was a game where everything was going right for the Islanders, while on the other end of the ice, everything was going wrong for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Islanders' best players were their best players paced by a pair of goals from both Paul Kariya and Mark Parrish, while their number one goalie played exactly how they expect him to play stopping 34 of the 35 shots he faced for his 29th victory of the season.

It was a fairly even game Monday night between Toronto and New York with the Leafs holding the advantage in play in the first period while the Islanders took over the control in the second period.

Despite outshooting the Islanders by a 13-6 margin in the opening stanza, the Islanders were the ones who escpaed the period with the 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Mark Parrish (34) and Marcel Hossa (17) on the powerplay, while Bates Battaglia opened the scoring with his 16th of the season at 10:18.

Mark Parrish, who leads the Isles after Monday's game with 81 points, would score again in the second period on the powerplay flipping a Marek Svatos rebound over a sprawled Henrik Lundqvist giving the Islanders a 3-1 lead.

Paul Kariya set a CPHL record in the third period scoring a pair of goals 9 seconds apart to put the Isles up 5-1. On his first goal, the speedy winger took a Jiri Hudler pass on his off-wing and beat former Islander Richard Jackman wide before cutting back in front of the net, waited for Lundqvist to drop down and fired a high shot into the top corner. Off the ensuing face off, Hudler broke in off a nifty face off steal and after beating Jackman again with a pretty inside-outside deke, fed a streaking Kariya for the one-timer who made no mistake getting a shot through the legs of the Toronto netminder.

The goal finished off the scoring and happened to also end the night for Henrik Lundqvist who was pulled in favour of Manny Fernandez.

With the victory, the Isles remain three points up on the 10th place Canadiens who also won Monday night in overtime over the New Jersey Devils, and are now two points behind the Carolina Hurricanes who host the Capitals tomorrow evening.

With 12 games left in the season, the Isles are in tough to make the post-season and will have to win the majority of their remaining games just to stand a chance. Fortunately for the Isles, their destiny is somewhat in their hands with two games remaining against a team they are chasing, the New York Rangers, who they'll face off with next on Wednesday.