Saturday December 22

The NHL was buzzing on Saturday night with 11 games. As we rapidly approach the midseason, teams are voraciously battling for those all important points in the standings. Former Islanders are active on most of the teams around the league. Let us take a peak at the FI happenings from Saturday:

* Boston captain Zdeno Chara scored the lone goal for the Bruins as they struggled to find offense against the visiting St. Louis Blues in a 4-1 loss. The goal, the 5th of the season for Chara, came with the man advantage. Chara snapped a 3 game point-less streak and now has 20 (5 goals, 15 assists) on 35 games this season. He has managed half of those points (3 goals, 7 assists) on the powerplay. In a non-point related sidenote, Blues' d-man Eric Brewer had a +4 night. It was the best +/- night of Brewer's career.

* Capitals' forward Viktor Kozlov had 2 big assists including one of the game tying goal as Washington dropped a 3-2 OT decision to the host Islanders. Kozzer has 21 points (3 goals, 18 assists) on 36 games. With the assists, he snapped a 3 game point-less streak.

* Olli Jokinen continues to be one of the only goal scorers for the Florida Panthers. On Saturday he contributed the lone team goal as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the host Panthers 2-1 in OT. The unassisted goal with 20 seconds remaining in the 2nd period was O-Jok's 19th of the season. He has 37 points (19 goals, 18 assists) on 36 games. On his current 5 game scoring streak, Jokinen has 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points. Over the last 11 games, Jokinen has an even more impressive 12 points on 7 goals and 5 assists.

* Montral defenseman Roman Hamrlik assisted on the tying goal midway through the 3rd period in a tight fought game resulting in a 3-2 SO win for the host Atlanta Thrashers over the Canadiens. Hamrlik has 15 points (2 goals, 13 assists) on 35 games. With the assist, Hamrlik snapped a 6 game point-less streak.

* Roberto Luongo continued to dominate in net and a couple of FIs came up big in the SO as the Vancouver Canucks edged the host Phoenix Coyotes 2-1. Luongo stopped 27 of 28 shots to improve to 16-10-3. He stopped another 3 of 4 in the SO to help seal the win. Capping the effort were Trevor Linden whose 3rd round SO goal extended the frame and 1st star of the game Taylor Pyatt whose 4th round SO goal, combined with a Luongo save, sealed up the win.

* Ducks' forward Todd Bertuzzi scored an insurance goal as Anaheim knocked off the host San Jose Sharks 5-2. The goal was Bertuzzi's 5th of the season. He now has 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) on 24 games. Bertuzzi has had 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) over the last 6 contests.

Check back soon for more updates.