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December 31, 2002
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- Roman Hamrlik took advantage of a pileup in front of the net to give the New York Islanders a win.
Hamrlik scored his second goal of the game with 56.9 seconds left in overtime as the Islanders beat the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
On a power play, Hamrlik was parked on the low right side, took Alexei Yashin's pass and beat goalie Roberto Luongo, who was being tied up by Islanders forward Mark Parrish.
Parrish was pushed into Luongo and was still on the ice with him when Hamrlik scored.
``He laid on Roberto's arm, and he claimed he couldn't get up because Parrish was on his arm,'' Florida coach Mike Keenan said.
Luongo popped up to argue as soon as he could.
``He falls on my arm, and I can't get up,'' Luongo said. ``There's no way I can stop that puck if he's on my arm.''
The Islanders have won three straight, all at home. They took all seven shots in overtime to move within one game of .500 at 15-16-5-0. Chris Osgood stopped 24 shots.
``This was a game we had to battle through and work hard throughout,'' Osgood said. ``We didn't give them any two-on-ones or breakaways. We stayed with our system.''
Ivan Novoseltsev scored for the Panthers, who played their 19th overtime in only 37 games this season. Luongo wound up with 33 saves for Florida, 0-1-1-3 in its last five.
``The bottom line is that we got a point on the road, so we're happy with that,'' Keenan said. ``But we can't continue scoring one goal or less per game. We have to score goals.''
It was just the second win of the season for the Islanders when scoring fewer than three goals. The other was a 2-1 home win against Vancouver on Nov. 30.
Michael Peca had a chance to win it for the Islanders with 5 seconds left in regulation, but his backhand tip hit the left post.
Novoseltsev gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 12:27 of the first period. On a rush, he took a pass from Viktor Kozlov in the high slot and beat Osgood low to the glove side.
Hamrlik tied it 92 seconds into the second period when he beat Luongo with a high slap shot from the same spot as Novoseltsev's goal.
Osgood cautioned about moving too far ahead in the standings.
``I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves,'' Osgood said. ``In reality, we're still out (of the playoffs). We have to stay focused and not get off ourgame.'' Notes The Islanders cleared up their three-goalie logjam by returning rookie Rick DiPietro to Bridgeport of the AHL. Tough forward Eric Godard was recalled from the Sound Tigers. ... It was the fourth and final meeting between the teams this season. The Islanders were 2-0 at home, while both games in Florida ended in 3-3 ties. Florida leads the overall series 21-17-8-0, including an 11-10-2-0 mark Long Island. ... The Islanders have killed 77 of the last 80short-handed situations.
Updated on Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002 5:30 am, EST
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