The NHL is back after the Olympic break that shut down the league for a few weeks. The Chicago Blackhawks, one of the best teams in the league these days came to the Nassau Coliseum to take on the NY Islanders.
In the first period, the Blackhawks didn't miss a beat they played very well. They wound up getting 22 shots on goal to the Islanders 9. The score was 2-1 Blackhawks.
Things changed fast once the second period started, the Islanders came out strong. Just 2:27 into the period, Blake Comeau who had the first Islander goal of the game, found the net again and he tied the game at 2. 25 seconds later, Jon Sim buried the puck in the net giving the Islanders a 3-2 lead.
The Blackhawks proceeded to pull their starting goaltender, Antti Niemi in favor of Cristobal Huet. 7:06 into the second period, Richard Park of the Islanders greeted Huet with a blast, he fired a dart past him to give the Islanders a 2 goal cushion.
With only 17.3 seconds left in the period, Blake Comeau lit the lamp again. His 3rd goal of the game which is known as a hat trick.
Ironicly, the last NHL game I saw just before the Olympic break in Montreal on 2/13, Daniel Briere of the Philadelphia Flyers had a hat trick as well.
I was thinking of Chrissy Capp, the young lady who sold me the ticket that night. We were talking and she said she had never seen a hat trick until a week or so before that game in Montreal. Now I saw a second one myself in a short period of time. Mind you, I've seen many hockey games in my time and I don't remember seeing many hat tricks either. With scoring down these days in the game, they're fewer and far between.
In the third period, the Islanders held on to the lead. The Blackhawks kept applying pressure but they couldn't find the net until there was just 4:17 left when they made it a 5-3 game. That's the way it ended. Islander goaltender Dwayne Roloson stopped 41 of 44 shots to earn the victory.
Special note: After the second period of play, a surprise visitor, friend and proud customer of Royalty Tours, Manny Morales was in the house. It was odd to see him.
Manny is a big NY Ranger fan. He has Ranger season tickets. He's had them for the past 29 years. He said it was a long story why he was at the Nassau Coliseum. I asked him how he got out there. Since he doesn't drive he had to resort to taking the LIRR from Penn Station to Westbury. That cost him $19 round trip he said. That didn't include an another $7 to take a van to and from the Nassau Coliseum. I was beside myself when I heard it cost him so much to get there.
When you give royalty $26 you get a lot of bang for your buck not a torchure ride to and from NYC to the Nassau Coliseum. Manny knows firsthand that he got the shaft in this case but he apparently didn't have a choice.
I just wish I knew I would have arranged to accomodate him. He'll know for the next time if there is one.
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