Senators' McEachern has four assists in win over Isles
OTTAWA -- The New York Islanders closed their dressing room door for a
team meeting after their 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday
night and didn't open it for an hour.
Islanders coach Peter Laviolette, clearly upset with his team's
performance, answered three media questions with monosyllabic responses
shortly after the game ended.
New York captain Michael Peca finally emerged from the Islanders' room
to face a scrum of reporters.
"We all share the same emotions," Peca said. "We're all disappointed.
We've done way too many things this year to find ourselves trying to
catch somebody in eighth place in 2 1/2 weeks."
The Islanders currently sit in sixth place, two points up on New Jersey
and five ahead of eighth-place Montreal. New York has won just three of
its last nine games.
"We have to get to the heart of each other and find out what's wrong,"
Peca said. "That's what we talked about. It wasn't about pointing
fingers. We love each other and we're a family. Who is going to make us
better but ourselves?"
Curtis Leschyshyn, Todd White, Zdeno Chara and Radek Bonk scored for
the Senators.
Shawn McEachern assisted on all four Ottawa goals to give him 300
points in six seasons with Ottawa.
The 33-year-old left winger is also the Senators' career leading scorer
against the Islanders with 10 goals and 27 assists in 39 games.
"There were guys on the ice who just put the puck in when I was on the
ice," McEachern said. "They're a tough team to play against. We came
out and played the way we wanted to. In the first period, we crashed
the net and made them make mistakes."
Mark Parrish scored twice for the Islanders, while Dave Scatchard
scored the other New York goal.
Ottawa extended its winning streak to seven games against the Islanders.
Senators fans booed former Ottawa star center Alexei Yashin when New
York's starting lineup was announced and each time Yashin touched the
puck, just as they had done at the start of the season after Yashin
returned from a year-long absence after a contract dispute. Yashin was
traded to the Islanders last June.
Ottawa jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by
Leschyshyn, White and Chara.
Leschyshyn's first goal of the season came after his passing attempt
bounced in off a defender past New York goaltender Chris Osgood just
over six minutes into the period.
White tapped in a cross-crease pass from McEachern on a two-man power
play at 11:24 for his 20th goal of the season. Chara hammered in a
blast from just inside the blue line 20 seconds later.
An apparent goal by New York's Brad Isbister was waved off following a
video review with 2:47 left in the period.
McEachern was initially credited with the Senators' fourth goal 6:52
into the second period, but the goal was then awarded to Bonk.
Parrish converted Peca's pass from behind the net with 1:37 left in the
period for the Islanders, drawing them within 3-1.
"It doesn't matter what you do individually or how many goals you get,"
said Parrish, who scored his 26th and 27th goals of the season. "If the
team doesn't win, it doesn't matter. Everybody feels pretty bad, at
least I hope they do."
Scatchard drilled a shot off the crossbar past Patrick Lalime on a
power play with 2:31 remaining in the game. Parrish then made it 4-3
with 28 seconds left.
Ottawa outshot New York 31-21.