Sunday April 15

Four games were contested on Sunday and it seems as if some Former Islanders have found their stride. FIs accounted for an OT game winner and 4 assists including 3 on game winning goals. In the two games that FIs did not play major roles we saw the Ottawa Senators retake the series lead with a 4-2 win over the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Ottawa now leads the series 2 games to 1. In the other game, the Anaheim Ducks edged the Minnesota Wild, 2-1, for a 3-0 strangehold lead in the series. For the third straight game the Ducks eked by the Wild by a lone goal for the victory. Here is a look at the other two games:

• Mathieu Schneider received an assist on the game winning powerplay goal in the Detroit Redwings' 3-1 home victory over the Calgary Flames. In the two games this playoffs Schneider has 1 goal and 2 assists for 2 points.
• In that game Flames' d-man Roman Hamrlik was credited with the secondary assist on Calgary's only goal, a powerplay tally in the second period. It was Hamrlik's first playoff point since April 29, 2006 when the Flames were eliminated in 7 games by the then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. That point came in game 5, Calgary's last win of the series.
• In an almost unbelievable scenario all the points in the OT game winner in the Vancouver Canucks' 2-1 win over the host Dallas Stars were credited to FIs. Vancouver, the #1 FI hotbed, has been responsible for many a recap on this site but this one was unique. 7:47 into the OT frame Taylor Pyatt scored his first goal of the playoffs off of assists from Bryan Smolinski and Trevor Linden. With the win Vancouver regained the series lead 2-1. It was Pyatt's 2nd point in the playoffs. He now has one goal and 2 assists. Smolinski has turned his play up a bit, as well, in the quest. Smoke now has 1 goal and 1 assist in the 3 games thusfar. Even Linden's getting involved with 2 assists in the 3 games.
• The other story of the Vancouver game was the rock solid backstopping of Roberto Luongo. He stopped 29 of 30 shots including 20 of the first 21 to notch his second win in three games. In those 3 games Luongo has played an amazing 263 minutes with a 1.60 goals against average and a .947 save percentage.

Three more games are up for grabs on Monday. By the end of the night the lead in each series will either have been retaken by the favorite or wrested by the upstart. Until next time keep your eyes on the playoff scoreboard.