Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Saturday April 11

The final Saturday of the 2008-09 NHL season was a frantic one with 26 teams battling in 13 (unlucky?) contests. Former Islanders aided in 6 of those games. Here is a quick look:

Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo had another stellar game stopping all 22 shots he faced as the Canucks pulled off another 1-0 victory, this time over the host Colorado Avalanche and in OT. Lu finishes the season with a 33-13-7 record with an awesome .920 save percentage, a tidy 2.34 goals against average and a single season high 9 shutouts. While Luongo was injured for a large chunk of the season the 54 games the goalie did play in were often excellent.

Buffalo center Tim Connolly had another multi-point night scoring a goal and adding a powerplay assist as the Sabres thumped the visiting Boston Bruins, the best team in the East, 6-1. TimCo finishes the season with 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists) in his last 2 games and 47 points (18 goals, 29 assists) on 48 - a near point-per-game pace. The helper was a big one as it was career #200 for Connolly coming in his 486th career game. More impressively is that despite playing in only 48 games TimCo sent a new single season high in goals scored.

Florida defenseman Bryan McCabe scored a powerplay goal and added an assist as the Panthers dispensed with the visiting Washington Capitals 7-4. McCabe finishes the season with 15 goals and 24 assists for 39 points on 69 games. For the 5th time on his career Big Mc has notched 15+ goals and his 8th extra man goal of the season pushes his career total to 67. Assisting on the 4th Washington goal was forward Viktor Kozlov. He wraps up the season with 13 goals and 28 assists for 41 points on 67 games and would foreseeable enter next season only 2 goals shy of 200 on his career.

Pittsburgh winger Ruslan Fedotenko assisted on the opening goal as the Penguins felled the host Montreal Canadiens 3-1. Fedo ends the regular season on a 3 game point streak (1 goal, 3 assists) and finishes with 39 points (16 goals, 23 assists) on 65 games. The 39 points leaves Fedotenko 5th on the team in points scored. Netting the lone Habs' goal was d-man Roman Hamrlik who snapped a 10 game goal-less streak but has had 5 points (1 goal, 4 assists) over the last 5 contests. Hamr ends the season with 6 goals and 27 assists for 33 points on 81 games.

Minnesota blueliner Marc-Andre Bergeron scored his 3rd goal in the last 2 games as the Wild again thumped a competitor, this time the host Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3. MAB ends the year with 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points on 72 games. Entering next season Bergeron is only 2 helpers shy of 200 assists on his career. The powerplay goal was the 7th of the season for MAB and the 36th of his career.


Calgary d-man Adrian Aucoin assisted on the first insurance goal as the Flames tore down the visiting Edmonton Oilers 4-1. Aucoin snapped an 8 game point-less streak and ends the regular season with 34 points (10 goals, 24 assists) on 81 games only 1 point shy of his 35 point effort from the 2007-08 season, his first with the Flames.



Check in soon with FIW as we wrap up the regular season!

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