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DiPietro's shutout leads Islanders past Blue Jackets

Dec 24, 2006 - 5:32 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Rick DiPietro was a rock in net all night.

DiPietro stopped all 26 shots he faced and recorded his ninth career shutout to lead the New York Islanders to a 4-0 triumph over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jason Blake's 20th goal of the season was all the offense the Islanders needed. He charged the center of the ice and wristed a shot past the stick side of goaltender Fredrik Norrena at 2:02 of the first period.

"I was going to give it back to (Alexei Yashin) but when the defenseman went down, I saw the goalie look the other way," Blake said. "When the goalie crouched down a little, I knew if I got it up high, there would be a good chance of it going in. It hit the crossbar and went in."

It was DiPietro's second shutout this month and third of the season. He made 37 saves against the Atlanta Thrashers on December 16.

"The defense looked real good," DiPietro said. "They allowed me to see most of the shots. You saw it a couple of times in the third period. Anytime the puck hit a body and squirted around, there were guys there. It was one of our better third periods with the lead this year."

Trent Hunter, Mike Sillinger and Viktor Kozlov each added a goal for New York, which was 1-for-5 on the power play.

Norrena stopped 19 shots for the Blue Jackets, who were 0-for-10 with the extra skater.

"I think we have to grow as a team," Norrena said. "The coach said after the game that for us to be a playoff team, we have to show up every night. You are going to lose sometimes but you have to put in the effort. I don't know if we did that tonight. You need 20 guys to play extremely hard on the road."