Friday November 23

The action intensified on Friday night in 10 games across the NHL. With so many points up for grabs so early in the season, teams are scrambling to stock up early. Former Islanders were there, as always, to help pick up the pace. FIs posted 2 goals, 8 assists, a SO game winner and a loss in net. Let us take a look at their contributions:

* Two FIs helped the Washington offense which has struggled so much as of late as the Capitals pulled off a 4-3 OT win over the host Philadelphia Flyers. Tom Poti assisted on the first 2 goals of the game including a powerplay tally and Viktor Kozlov added another assist to help provide an early Caps' surge. Poti now has 6 assists on the year in 16 games. Poti snapped a 4 game point-less streak and has 3 of his 6 assists on the man advantage. On 24 games, Kozlov has 14 points on 3 goals and 11 assists. Struggling to find the net so far this season, his 3 goals are below the 5 he had at the same point last year. We will see how Kozlov does since his 25th and 26th games last season were his breakout competitions in which he scored 6 goals in about 24 hours.

* Michael Peca had a big night for the surprisingly good Columbus Blue Jackets scoring the game winning powerplay goal and adding an assist as his team blanked the host Minnesota Wild 4-0 on Friday night. The tally ended a 9 game goal-less streak and was his second game winner of the year. He now has 9 points (2 goals, 7 assists) on 14 games.

* Only 2 games back from an injury and the Ducks' Todd Bertuzzi is helping offensively again. Bert had a powerplay assist on Anaheim's second goal in their 4-3 SO loss to the visiting Phoenix Coyotes. With 9 games under his belt with the Ducks, Bertuzzi has 4 points on 1 goal and 3 assists.

* In only his second game back from injury, Sabres' forward Tim Connolly continued to provide offense. Playing in his 16th game of the season, Connolly scored a goal and added an empty net assist to improve to 14 points (2 goals, 12 assists) on the year as Buffalo beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 4-2.

* Panthers captain Olli Jokinen scored the decisive SO goal in the 5th round of the sudden death frame to help lift his team over the visiting New York Rangers 3-2. The Florida center scored the only goal of the shootout to lift his team to victory.

* Roberto Luongo cannot do it all for Vancouver and as of late neither can Taylor Pyatt and Brad Isbister. Luongo stopped 26 of 29 shots but saw his team fall to the host St. Louis Blues 3-1. The Canucks' goaltender saw his record drop to 9-9-2 with the loss. Fellow FIs Brad Isbister and Taylor Pyatt provided the assists on the lone Vancouver goal. Now 18 games into his season, Isbister has 7 points on 2 goals and 5 assists. Over the last 5 games, Isbister has 4 points on 2 goals and 2 assists. With 22 games under his belt this season, Pyatt has 10 points on 5 goals, 5 assists.

Check back soon for FI highlights and NHL action.