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Satan leads Islanders in shootout victory over Panthers

Dec 10, 2006 - 3:30 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Rick DiPietro almost gave away the game in regulation, but he more than made up for it afterward.

Miroslav Satan scored the deciding goal and DiPietro stood tall in the shootout as the New York Islanders posted a 5-4 victory over the Florida Panthers.

Satan opened the shootout with a low wrist shot that beat goaltender Alex Auld to the stick side.

"I haven't faced (Auld) before, but I saw it might be open under the blocker, and I went for it," Satan said.

DiPietro made a beautiful right pad save on Ville Peltonen on Florida's first attempt before Viktor Kozlov put a wrister under the pads of Auld.

With the Panthers needing a goal to stay alive, Rostislav Olesz shot wide of the left goalpost, sealing the win for the Islanders. New York needed 10 rounds to post a 4-3 shootout triumph over Florida on October 28.

After Satan put New York ahead, 4-3, with 1:50 to go in the third period, DiPietro attempted to clear the puck from behind his own net. However, it went right to defenseman Ruslan Salei, who wristed a shot into a vacant right side of the open net with 43 seconds left, forging a tie.

"It was poor judgment behind the net," DiPietro said. "I should have left it. I decided to play it. It bounced to them and they capitalized. It was a stupid play that almost cost us two points. But give our guys credit, they battled hard and earned a big two points."

"We are very fortunate to win the game, period. Especially the way we played in the second period," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "One good thing is we were resilient and fought back. Ricky wasn't the only one to make a couple of mistakes out there."

DiPietro composed himself during overtime, stopping all seven shots he faced. He finished with 28 saves.

"He made some big saves before and after (Florida's fourth goal)," Nolan said. "In the overtime and shootout, he was rock solid."

After killing a 5-on-3 disadvantage, the Panthers scored goals 24 seconds apart late in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. Gary Roberts tallied on a snap shot that beat DiPietro to the stick side with 2:34 to go, and Stephen Weiss shot a low wrister under the goalie's pad shortly thereafter.

"My goal gave us a life, for sure, but we were fortunate to be up 3-2 after the second," Roberts said. "We could have been down 5-0 if our goalie hadn't played so well in the first."

Nathan Horton recorded a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who were 1-for-4 on the power play.

Auld made 31 saves but did not face a shot in overtime.

"We fought hard to come back from 2-0," Auld said. "We just couldn't put them away in overtime."