The Minnesota Wild outshot the New York Islanders 19-5 over the final two periods of play at the Nassau Coliseum on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, the first period did not go nearly as well, and as a result the Wild found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 final score in their first road game of the 2011-12 season.
The Islanders got on the board first in this one, capitalizing on a tripping penalty by Wild captain Mikko Koivu at the 9:05 mark of the first period. Islanders' defenseman Andrew MacDonald collected the rebound of a shot by Travis Hamonic, and ripped a shot past Niklas Backstrom that ricocheted off of the post before finding its way into the net, giving New York a 1-0 lead.
Less than three minutes later, the Islanders got onto the board again, as captain Mark Streit faked a shot from the blue line, pushed deeper into the zone, and flipped a perfect past to Frans Neilsen at the right post, who redirected it in for a goal to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead. P.A. Parenteau had the secondary assist on both goals for the Isles.
The Wild were kept off of the board until early in the third period, when Matt Cullen managed to sneak one past Montoya for his second goal of the year at the 1:13 mark. It was Cullen's second goal of the season, with the assists going to Guillaume Latendresse and Brent Bulmer. Unfortunately, the Wild would get no closer, with Montoya standing tall as Minnesota pressed for the tying goal at the end of the game.
Minnesota managed to fire off just two shots against Islanders' goaltender Al Montoya in the first period of play, despite having two power plays in the first five minutes of play. Overall, the Wild went 0-for-7 with the man advantage on the afternoon, including a 44-second two-man advantage in which they didn't even muster a shot.
The Wild will move on to play the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.