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Comrie scores twice as Islanders' slide continues

Apr 1, 2007 - 4:04 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Mike Comrie and the Ottawa Senators wore down Wade Dubielewicz and continued their domination of the New York Islanders.

Comrie scored a pair of goals as the Senators peppered Dubielewicz with 46 shots and completed a four-game season sweep of the fading Islanders with a 5-2 victory.

Defenseman Christoph Schubert added a goal and an assist and Martin Gerber made 21 saves for Ottawa (47-24-8), which kept alive its hopes for first place in the Northeast Division. With three games remaining, the Senators climbed within five points of the Buffalo Sabres (50-21-7), who lost to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday but have a game in hand.

The Senators have won all eight meetings between the teams since the end of the lockout, outscoring the Islanders by a lopsided 36-13 margin.

"They really take the wind out of a team," said Dubielewicz, who was making his first start since a 4-3 shootout win over Pittsburgh on January 26, 2006.

Viktor Kozlov and blue-liner Marc-Andre Bergeron tallied for New York (36-30-12), which lost its fourth straight game and fell four points behind Montreal (41-32-6) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"You come down to the stretch run, every sport loses people. You still have to have the heart and desire to play this game," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "If you don't, you don't need those type of athletes on this team."

With goaltender Rick DiPietro still sidelined with a concussion, the Islanders turned to Dubielewicz in goal after Mike Dunham was ineffective in Friday's loss to the Sabres. Dubielewicz was tested early and often, facing 18 shots in the first period and 32 over the first 40 minutes.

"(Forty-six) shots on goal, you can't point a finger at the goaltender and say he didn't do his part," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "The kid played well. We had a lot of point-blank shots and he made the stops."

With both teams down a skater, Schubert opened the scoring when he took a cross-slot pass from Jason Spezza during a 2-on-1 rush and beat Dubielewicz from the left faceoff circle with 20 seconds left in the first period.

The Islanders tied it at 11:11 of the second, when Kozlov scored from the doorstep off a pass from captain Alexei Yashin. Kozlov had fanned on a shot in front of an open net just minutes earlier.

Comrie put the Senators back in front just 29 seconds later with a brilliant move, skating around defenseman Deron Quint and putting the puck past Dubielewicz.

"When it's a fast break, I had plenty of speed and I just tried to react," Comrie said. "If you get the defenseman to turn his feet, it's tough for him to recover."

Dubielewicz was not nearly as sharp in the third period, allowing a pair of goals in the first 4:47.

"We were fired up coming into the third period. I don't know what to say," Dubielewicz said. "It (stinks)."

Comrie completed his second two-goal performance of the season with his 19th of the season 47 seconds into the third, firing the puck into a vacant right side of the net after Schubert's blast from above the slot was deflected wide.

"He's played well the last few games," Murray said of Comrie. "When he gets the chance, he's a finisher."

Dean McAmmond scored on a backhander four minutes later and, after Bergeron netted a power-play tally, Dany Heatley extended his goal-scoring streak to five games with an empty-netter for his 100th point of the season.