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Yashin scores in return as Islanders blank Thrashers

Dec 17, 2006 - 3:54 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- The new-look New York Islanders were happy to welcome back a familiar face in Alexei Yashin.

Yashin ignited an outburst of three goals over a span of 5:47 in the second period and Rick DiPietro stopped 37 shots as the Islanders handed the Atlanta Thrashers their fifth straight defeat, 6-0.

Andy Hilbert, Shawn Bates, Miroslav Satan, Viktor Kozlov and Mike Sillinger also scored for New York, which bounced back from a lopsided 7-4 loss to Pittsburgh to win for just the second time in its last five games.

The victory capped a busy day for the Islanders, who activated Yashin - their star center and captain who had missed the last eight games with a knee injury - and traded veteran defenseman Alexei Zhitnik to the Philadelphia Flyers.

"He's a big part of our team," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said of Yashin. "Any time you have teammates asking when he'd be back, you know they miss him."

Yashin made his presence felt in what was a dominant second period for the Islanders, firing a wrist shot over the left shoulder of goaltender Johan Hedberg at 10:54 of the second to give New York a 2-0 bulge.

"The most important thing is we won and we bounced back from last night," Yashin said. "Ricky was unbelievable. We're all in this together."

Hilbert made it a three-goal lead just 41 seconds later, beating Hedberg by putting a backhander into the top of the net.

Hedberg was able to stop Bates on a breakaway shortly thereafter, but the center skated back in front of the net and scored his third goal of the season off a pass from Richard Park at 16:41.

"It's in the books now," Hedberg said. "Hopefully, we can learn from what happened."

DiPietro, who was pulled after two periods in Friday's loss, was far more effective in this one, stabilizing an Islanders defense that had allowed at least four goals in five straight games. The former first overall pick stopped 14 shots in the first period, 13 in the second and 10 in the third en route to his second shutout of the season and eighth career.

"Teams will go through spurts like that, when you will have trouble stopping the puck," DiPietro said. "We bounced back. The defense did a great job of cleaning things out in front of the net."

The 25-year-old made his most notable save in the opening minutes, stopping Jon Sim on a partial breakaway. Bobby Holik nearly scored on a wraparound with less than two minutes remaining but also was thwarted.

DiPietro helped extend the offensive woes of the Thrashers, who were blanked for the second time in five games and have scored just six goals during their skid.

"We didn't play as a team," Holik said. "Tonight is a bad night to analyze. There isn't much to say."

Satan opened the scoring at 8:04 of the first period. After skating around the back of the net and poking the puck away from defenseman Greg de Vries, Satan received a feed from Kozlov and beat Hedberg from the left side of the crease to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games.

"We had some fun playing the game tonight," Nolan said. "Sometimes we get too systematic and robotic. We had some jump tonight."

Kozlov scored midway through the third and Sillinger capped the rout with a shorthanded tally with 4 1/2 minutes to play. Mike York notched his 300th career point with an assist on Kozlov's goal.