UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Rob Schremp made a victorious return to New York.
Schremp scored a power-play goal to lift the Thrashers to a 2-1 victory over the Islanders on Thursday night at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The Thrashers claimed Schremp off waivers from the Islanders on Feb. 28. Coach Craig Ramsay put Schremp at center in hopes he would provide a spark against his old team.
He did.
Schremp wristed a quick shot that beat Islanders goaltender Al Montoya at the 13:56 mark of the second period. The goal came with 39 seconds remaining on a holding penalty against Radek Martinek.
“It feels good to contribute in the game,” Schremp said. “Everyone knows the scenario. I was happy to contribute, but it was a team win.”
The Thrashers (31-30-12, 74 points) remain 11th in the Eastern Conference, seven points behind Buffalo for the eighth and final playoff spot. The Thrashers, who are 5-2-1 in the past seven games, have nine games remaining in the regular season.
The win in regulation was the fourth in the past 38 games for the Thrashers, since Feb. 11 against the Rangers -- a span of 16 games and 41 days.
“I knew he was fired up coming back here,” said Blake Wheeler, who assisted on both goals. “Any time you get him the puck good things are going to happen.”
The Thrashers returned to an up-tempo style of play. They outshot the Islanders 34-15, making it a slow night for goaltender Chris Mason. It was a season-low for shots-on-goal allowed by the Thrashers, bettering the previous mark of 17 against the Hurricanes on Feb. 13
“I would prefer to get more shots,” Mason said. “[The Islanders] don’t come in and shoot the puck. They set up plays. Tonight, the guys did a great job of breaking them up and turning it back up ice. You’ve got to be ready to sit there for five or 10 minutes and then get a shot.
"I would prefer more shots, but that being said, the guys did a great job in front.”
The Thrashers opened the scoring with Andrew Ladd’s first-period goal. The Thrashers' captain scored from in front of the net on a pass from Wheeler at the 7:56 mark. It was Ladd’s 27th goal of the season and his 11th in the past 18 games.
The Thrashers pushed the play for most of the first period, outshooting the Islanders 12-3 after the first 20 minutes.
The Islanders scored on their fourth shot. Just 1:38 into the second period, John Tavares swiped at a rebound that got behind Mason for the game-tying goal.
By the end of the second period the Thrashers held a 28-7 shots-on-goal advantage but led by one goal.
“It’s a big win for our team to bounce back from an ugly outing in Buffalo [an 8-2 loss Saturday],” Ramsay said. “Every thing that could go wrong did go wrong. You have to convince players, especially when you have to sit for four days after a loss like that, you don’t suddenly become a bad team. You have to go out and play, and they showed it tonight.”
The Thrashers, who entered the game with the worst penalty-kill unit in the NHL, held the Islanders to an 0-for-4 night. They did not have a single shot during the first three man-advantages. They finished with one shot as the Thrashers killed off the final 35 seconds of the game short-handed.
“Our penalty kill is mind-boggling at times,” Ramsay said. “We can look like we did tonight when we attack and play aggressively. Or we can have a night in Buffalo where they get three and everything goes wrong.
"I love the way we played tonight. We were trying to make a difference, even short-handed.”
About the Author
