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Chara nets shootout winner as Bruins edge Islanders

Feb 11, 2007 - 4:55 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Zdeno Chara showed why he is the captain of the Boston Bruins.

Chara scored in the ninth round of the shootout to lift the Bruins to a much-needed 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders.

The Bruins, who entered 10 points behind idle Tampa Bay for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, won for just the third time in their last nine games thanks to their All-Star defenseman.

"It's a great feeling if your team wins, especially this time of the year," Chara said. "It's crucial for us. It doesn't matter that I scored, because it's a team effort. It was very emotional and the crowd wanted it."

Boston snapped a four-game home losing streak and has not won in regulation at home since beating Philadelphia, 4-3, on January 6. The Bruins' last three wins have come in shootouts.

Petr Tenkrat kept alive Boston's hopes by answering former Bruin Randy Robitaille's goal in the seventh round of the bonus format with one of his own. Each team failed to convert in the next round and New York defenseman Tom Poti was unsuccessful against goaltender Tim Thomas on the first shot of the ninth, setting the stage for Chara.

Skating in against Rick DiPietro, Chara unleashed a wrist shot that went between the netminder's pads, making his first career shootout attempt a memorable one.

"You're going into the shootout with a set mind, but in a split-second, you might have to change," Chara said. "It wasn't a fake."

"He just pumped a slap shot and got me to open five-hole," DiPietro said.

Marco Sturm erased a 3-2 deficit for Boston midway through the third. During a 5-on-3 power play, the German converted a pass from Marc Savard for his 15th goal of the season.

"I've been waiting for that kind of game for a long time and I'm glad I scored," Sturm said. "I love to score, and I always get excited when I score. It was always my dream to play here, and to score the goals makes it even better."

"It's a tough deal," Islanders defenseman Sean Hill said. "We haven't been getting the goals we need and things seem to be ending up in the other team's favor. Once again, we had too many penalties at inopportune times and then a 5-on-3 penalty kill. We shouldn't have been in that position."

Sturm, who also tallied in the first period, recorded his second multi-goal game of the season. He had a hat trick in a 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on December 19.

Miroslav Satan had put the Islanders ahead with a man-advantage tally of his own at 3:58 of the session. Poti's shot from the left point was stopped by Thomas, but Satan banged in the rebound for his 19th goal.

It was the fifth tally in six games for Satan, who has six points in three games against Boston this season.

Viktor Kozlov and Mike Sillinger also scored and defenseman Chris Campoli added two assists for the Islanders, who fell to 5-2-3 in their last 10 games.

Kozlov has 20 goals this season, two shy of his career-high set in 2002-03 while with Florida.

Patrice Bergeron had a goal and an assist and rookie Phil Kessel set up a pair of tallies for Boston, which is 1-1-1 vs. New York this season.

DiPietro made 25 saves, while Thomas stopped 31 shots.