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Hunter rescues Islanders in overtime

Feb 29, 2008 - 4:29 AM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Trent Hunter helped the New York Islanders forget about blowing a three-goal lead.

Hunter scored in overtime and Mike Comrie had a pair of goals to lead the Islanders to a 5-4 win over the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday.

Josef Vasicek and Andy Hilbert tallied goals and Rick DiPietro set aside 19 shots to move the Islanders to within two points of the Buffalo Sabres and the Philadelphia Flyers for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

"It's huge," DiPietro said. "Especially when you up a couple of goals against a team like that and they come back. It's easy to get down and we didn't do that tonight."

With the game tied in the extra session, Vasicek found Hunter between the circles. The 27-year old Hunter blasted a one-timer over the glove of Kari Lehtonen 69 seconds into the overtime to give the Islanders the victory.

"We were able to stick together and get the two points in the end," Hunter said. "Joe (Vasicek) made a great play to get me the puck. It isn't always pretty. We know how crucial each each point is."

Vasicek picked the pocket of defenseman Ken Klee to set up the winning tally.

"I wanted to try to put my stick in there," Vasicek said. "I was fortunate to get the pass and find Hunter in front."

"It's my fault," Klee said. "I needed to get it to my partner. It's tough. We need two points every night right now."

The Thrashers looked listless in their first home game without superstar All-Star Marian Hossa and were trailing, 3-0, and down a man after Niclas Havelid was whistled for holding three minutes into the second period.

But New York defenseman Bryan Berard helped bring the electricity in the arena, pulling down Eric Perrin on a shorthanded breakaway.

Perrin beat DiPietro on the ensuing penalty shot by deking first to his forehand, then to his backhand and back to his forehand to cut the deficit to 3-1.

"We did a lot of good things once we got going," Thrashers coach Don Waddell said. "We got down 3-0 and chipped away. It was obviously a great goal by Perrin to get us going."

Atlanta closed the deficit on rare goals from blue-liners Klee and Alexei Zhitnik.

Klee beat DiPietro for his first goal of the season with a slap shot from above the right faceoff circle at 13:46 of the second period.

Zhitnik followed 74 seconds later with a tally from the left faceoff dot, which whistled over the DiPietro's glove to knot the contest at 3-3.

"It took us a little bit to get going," said the newly acquired Colby Armstrong, who assisted on Klee's goal in his Thrashers debut. "It was a rough start, but we got going in the second."

The Islanders regained the lead on Comrie's team-leading 20th goal of the season on a shot from the high slot at 3:17 in the third

But once again, they lost it down the stretch when Atlanta captain Bobby Holik sent the game into overtime with a tally from the slot through traffic over the blocker of DiPietro with 82 seconds remaining.

"The way we gave up the three-goal lead was disheartening," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "Fortunately, we found a way to get the two points."

Comrie got the Islanders on the board midway through the first period when he lofted a backhander from between the circles, which struck the chest of Lehtonen and trickled down his body.

Vasicek doubled the advantage just over two minutes later with a pretty deke that caught Lehtonen out of position. He finished off the play with a backhander to the vacated right side of the net.

Hilbert extended the lead to three with a wrister from between the circles 62 seconds into the second period before the Thrashers finally showed signs of life.

Lethonen made 32 saves for the Thrashers, who have dropped five straight games.

"We had some breakdowns in front of the net, leaving guys all alone," Waddell said. "It's disheartening. Kari played great for us and he's not going to stop every one of those."