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Islanders outlast Panthers in shootout

Oct 29, 2006 - 1:13 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- The New York Islanders picked the right night to be facing a tired team.

Andy Hilbert scored in the 10th round of the shootout to lift the Islanders to a 4-3 victory over the road-weary Florida Panthers.

The goal by Hilbert, on a pretty deke and backhand shot against netminder Ed Belfour, was just the third of the shootout. It was the longest shootout for the Islanders, surpassing their previous high by one round.

"I saw Belfour was kind of stacking his pads. I was hoping he would bite and he did," Hilbert said. "I went to my backhand and it went in. I was 0-for-1 in shootouts last year, but in the minors I was in shootouts quite a bit.

"We deserved a good fate tonight. We played well and Ricky (goaltender Rick DiPietro) played great."

DiPietro made Hilbert's goal stand by stopping defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski to secure just the team's second win in five games.

Playing their third game in four nights, the Panthers looked weary. They were outshot, 32-10, through the first two periods, including 12-1 in the opening session.

Belfour made 39 saves and, after Miroslav Satan opened the shootout with a goal despite fanning on the shot, stopped the next eight before Hilbert tallied.

"(Hilbert) made a really nice move," Belfour said. "It went just over my pad, right by the tip of my glove and right inside the post. He made a great shot."

Blue-liner Jay Bouwmeester forced overtime, taking a deflected pass off the skate of Stephen Weiss from behind the net and beating DiPietro with 3:29 left in regulation.

"I would say this was one of our better games to this point," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "Florida got a couple of lucky bounces to get a couple of goals. I thought we played really well.

"We moved the puck smarter and a lot quicker. When you do that, the team looks quicker. I've yet to see a team skate faster than the puck."

Shawn Bates, Alexei Yashin and Jason Blake scored for the Islanders.

The Panthers, who have a league-high six road losses, also received tallies from Nathan Horton and Kwiatkowski.

"We are not satisfied at all (getting three points on the three-game road trip)," Weiss said. "It was a game we needed to win. It was a good battle back to get a point because we were down with three minutes to go. We're not getting as many points as we should on the road."