Isles Clinch Playoff Spot In Shootout Loss To Hurricanes

Well in what was the teams ugliest game in a while, the Islanders were defeated tonight in a shootout by the Hurricanes 4-3.  Even with the loss, with the Capitals victory over the Jets, the Islanders clinched their first playoff birth since the 2006/2007 season.  Here are some of my notes:

-Dan Ellis played a great game for Carolina.  When people say a goalie keeps a team in the game, games like the ones Ellis had tonight are where that comes from.  He made some huge saves for the Canes tonight.

-Keith Aucoin, even though he didn't get on the score sheet had a pretty solid game and came close a couple times to finally breaking his drought.

-Powerplay was weak, that needs to get better as the season ends and we head to the playoffs.

-Nabby had a decent game, not his best but surely not his worst!

Coming in, a lot of people were looking past this game because of the Hurricanes recent struggles.  Well, tonight the Hurricanes came out and showed why you never want to do that.  The team didn't play well for a majority of the game tonight, but they managed to clinch a playoff spot which is the goal.

Next Game: Thursday @ Philly

EASTERN	DIV	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	Z - PITTSBURGH	ATL	46	35	11	0	70	32	155	113	+42	17-6-0	18-5-0	3-0	7-3-0	LOST 1
2	X - BOSTON	NE	45	27	13	5	59	23	125	102	+23	15-4-3	12-9-2	4-3	4-5-1	LOST 1
3	Y - WASHINGTON	SE	46	26	18	2	54	23	145	126	+19	14-8-0	12-10-2	3-0	9-1-0	WON 2
4	X - MONTRÉAL	NE	46	27	14	5	59	24	141	123	+18	14-7-3	13-7-2	3-2	4-6-0	LOST 2
5	X - TORONTO	NE	45	25	15	5	55	25	138	124	+14	13-8-2	12-7-3	0-5	6-3-1	WON 1
6	X - NY ISLANDERS	ATL	46	24	16	6	54	20	137	135	+2	10-11-3	14-5-3	4-2	7-0-3	OT 1
7	OTTAWA	NE	45	23	16	6	52	19	109	99	+10	15-5-3	8-11-3	4-4	4-6-0	LOST 2
8	NY RANGERS	ATL	46	24	18	4	52	20	122	109	+13	15-6-2	9-12-2	4-4	6-3-1	LOST 1
9	WINNIPEG	SE	47	24	20	3	51	22	126	140	-14	13-9-1	11-11-2	2-3	6-3-1	LOST 1
10	NEW JERSEY	ATL	46	18	18	10	46	16	109	123	-14	12-9-2	6-9-8	2-7	3-6-1	WON 1
11	BUFFALO	NE	47	20	21	6	46	14	123	142	-19	10-10-3	10-11-3	6-4	6-4-0	WON 1
12	PHILADELPHIA	ATL	46	21	22	3	45	20	129	139	-10	14-7-2	7-15-1	1-2	5-5-0	WON 2
13	CAROLINA	SE	46	19	24	3	41	18	122	148	-26	9-14-0	10-10-3	1-1	3-6-1	WON 2
14	TAMPA BAY	SE	45	17	24	4	38	16	140	141	-1	11-9-2	6-15-2	1-3	2-6-2	LOST 2
15	FLORIDA	SE	46	14	26	6	34	11	107	164	-57	8-10-5	6-16-1	3-1	3-7-0	WON 1

 photo courtesy of http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm#?navid=nav-stn-main