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Park lifts Islanders past Capitals

Dec 23, 2007 - 4:02 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Richard Park scored the game-winning goal with 1:17 remaining in overtime as the New York Islanders defeated the Washington Capitals, 3-2, on Saturday.

With the faceoff in the neutral zone, Park won the draw, kicked it to himself and gained the offensive zone. The Korean-born winger skated toward the goal, but elected to peel off into the corner.

"I saw Marty (Radek Martinek) open and passed it to him. He made a great play getting it back to me," Park said. "I took one look and saw no one was there. I don't know what happened to the defenseman."

What happened was blue-liner Mike Green was inadvertently hit in the face by the stick of teammate Jeff Schultz and was down on the ice for the remainder of the play.

"He (Schultz) went down and wasn't where he would normally be," Capitals interim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "That's why Park was wide open. If we had gotten possession, they (the referees) probably would have blown the whistle."

Park then gained control of the puck again and wristed a sharp-angle shot past goaltender Olaf Kolzig for his sixth goal of the season to end the game.

New York looked to have won the game in regulation when captain Bill Guerin broke a 1-1 tie with a goal with 2:06 remaining.

After the Islanders won a faceoff in the offensive zone, the puck came back to defenseman Bruno Gervais, who fired it on net. Kolzig made the initial save, but Guerin corralled the puck in the left faceoff circle and fire it past the netminder for his ninth goal of the season.

The lead, however, proved short-lived as Alex Ovechkin leveled the contest with 55 seconds remaining.

The Russian superstar wristed the puck from the top of the left faceoff circle and beat netminder Rick DiPietro for his team-leading 25th goal of the season.

"I went down hoping it would hit me," DiPietro said. "The puck had eyes and found its way through."

The Islanders' Miroslav Satan opened the scoring midway through the second period.

Satan faked Kolzig to the ice and fired a shot over the prone netminder for his 10th goal of the season.

Satan, who extended his scoring streak to six straight games, began the play by blocking defenseman John Erskine's shot in the Islanders' defensive zone. Josef Vasicek corralled the puck and fed a streaking Satan at the red line to set up the score.

"Joe had the puck and I saw the opening on the ice," Satan said. "He gave me a perfect pass and I used my speed to get around (Kolzig). I had that kind of goal against New Jersey earlier in the year, and I used to do it when I was much younger as a kid."

Alexander Semin tied the game with 2:08 remaining in the second period.

After the Capitals fanned on two shots in the offensive zone, Semin gained control of the puck in the high slot and wristed it past a screened DiPietro for his fifth goal of the season.

It was Semin's first goal this season that was not scored in the third period.

"Our penalty kill (3-3) did the job," said DiPietro, who finished with 14 saves for New York. "Park worked his tail off and got rewarded. In the beginning of the season, we were more successful when we played a smart, controlled game. We did that tonight."

Kolzig stopped 28 of 31 shots.

"This is the first time in the 15 games I've coached where we have not generated too much offense," Boudreau said. "Maybe we were giving DiPietro too much respect and not forcing things on him enough."

"We didn't generate enough offense," Capitals left wing Matt Pettinger said. "Look at the positive, we got a point out of it. We could have got nothing."