Saturday April 7

Only 2 teams got the day off on Saturday as 14 games were up for grabs. Must win scenarios were in place for both the Islanders and the Colorado Avalanche. Within the day the Islanders would be in position to take a playoff spot owing to Toronto's thrilling win over Montreal and Colorado would be eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since moving to the Mile High City. In those 14 games Former Islanders accounted for 5 goals, 4 assists and backstopped their teams to 2 wins. Here is the breakdown:

• Chris Osgood stopped 19 of 21 shots for the win in Detroit's 7-2 whomping of visiting Chicago on Saturday. At 11-3-6 Osgood finished the season nicely going 7-0-5 since taking his last loss on January 6. But the real surprise was Osgood's powerplay assist. In 20 prior games this season Osgood had yet to tally a point before receiving credit for the secondary on Detroit's 6th goal of the game. Jeff Hamilton rounded out the scoring with his 18th goal of the season. In 69 games Hamilton has done an impressive job scoring 38 points.
• In his first game back, after sitting out an injury that lasted over a season, Tim Connolly scored his first goal of the season. The insurance tally in Buffalo's 2-0 road win over the Washington Capitals came on one of Connolly's first shifts.
• Taylor Pyatt scored his 23rd goal of the season only 4:38 into the first period of Vancouver's 4-3 OT road win over San Jose. In 76 games Pyatt has scored 37 points. Brent Sopel assisted on Vancouver's third goal, a powerplay tally. Since he joined Vancouver, Sopel accounted for a modest 5 points in 20 games. Roberto Luongo toughed 30 regulation shots and 34 seconds of OT for his 47th win of the year leaving him tied for 2nd most wins in a season with Bernie Parent, 1 behind Martin Brodeur. In 76 games, 75 of them starts, Luongo finished the season 47-22-6 with a .921 save percentage, a 2.28 goals against average and 5 shutouts. All of this is exceedingly impressive considering Luongo's never been more than 5 games over .500 on his career.
• Olli Jokinen finished his strong season with another multipoint night. Florida lost 5-4 in OT against the host Carolina Hurricanes but O-Jok accounted for 1 goal and 2 assists. The states are numerous for Jokinen. In his last 11 games O-Jok scored 22 points, 8 goals and 14 assists. Overall, he played in all 82 games for the third consecutive season. In those 82 games, O-Jok had 39 goals and 52 assists for 91 points, a career high in all three categories, eclipsing his 38/51/89 numbers from last season. As well, his +18 is also a high.
• FI Bryan McCabe actually aided the Islanders when he scored the tying goal in Toronto's wild 6-5 home win over the Montreal Canadiens. His 15th of the season came on the powerplay only 58 seconds into the third period. 11 of his 15 goals this season have come on the man advantage. For the fifth time in his career McCabe played every game on the season. His second best season overall, McCabe finished with 15 goals, 42 assists for 57 points with a +3 rating and 1 game winner.

Only Sunday remains for the regular season. Stay tuned shortly for the recap.