Isles Slap Struggling Wings

Coaches preach that goaltending and special teams win hockey games, and the New York Islanders followed that plan to perfection against the Detroit Red Wings.

Tommy Salo turned aside 35 shots and the Islanders scored twice with a man advantage and another time one second after a third power play as they beat the Red Wings 3-1 Saturday night.

"Tommy rebounded nicely after the last game (a 4-1 loss to Toronto) and showed some character," Islanders coach Bill Stewart said.

Robert Reichel had a goal and two assists for the Islanders, who won for the first time in three games and beat Detroit at home for the first time in five games (1-3-1) since a 3-2 victory on March 2, 1993. Zigmund Palffy contributed three assists.

Detroit, which blew a 4-1 third-period lead and came from behind to tie Florida 5-5 on Friday night, hasn't won in four games (0-2-2) after having a six-game winning streak. They fired 10 shots at Salo in the scoreless first period, but Salo turned aside tough chances by Vyacheslav Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov.

New York opened the scoring 47 seconds into the second period when Reichel redirected Palffy's hard pass into the net while on a power play.

After Palffy had a goal disallowed at 3:35 because linemate Ted Donato had his skate in the crease, New York scored at 5:36 when Barry Richter came in from the left point to slam a rebound past Kevin Hodson.

Tomas Holmstrom cut New York's lead to 2-1 at 14:50 on a tip of Doug Brown's cross-ice pass that hit the left post and went in. But Salo wasn't rattled. He robbed Fdorov at 16:33 when he took a wrist shot off the right shoulder. The puck rolled across his shoulder blades before he shrugged it aside.

"I was able to see the shots tonight," Salo said. "Our penalty killing was really good, and so was our power play. Those were key for us."

Both teams traded chances in the third period before Fedorov was thrown out on a match penalty for high-sticking defenseman Zdeno Chara's neck with six minutes to go. Chara blacked out for a moment and was hyperventilating, but only suffered a bruise.

"I tried to get up and the stick just got him," Fedorov said. "I was on my back, and I thought the puck was under me, so I tried to get up quickly and recover my position. I didn't mean to injure him."

Chara had a different view.

"Something like that has nothing to do with the game," Chara said. "I know hockey is a rough game, but I thought that was a cheap shot."

When told of Fedorov's comments, Chara said, "I haven't seen the tape, but some of the guys have and they said that he was looking right at me when he hit me. I'll have to see the tape for myself before I make that decision."

During the ensuing power play, Mark Lawrence tipped Reichel's pass past Hodson with five minutes left, and New York had the victory.

"We've been hurt on penalty killing lately," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "Also, we've been averaging two goals against a game for the last month, but in the last week, we've given up 15 goals."

Stewart, behind the bench after suffering a concussion in a car accident on Friday morning, said that rebuilding confidence and consistency among the players is a slow process, and one that needs patience.

"Probably my biggest downfall is that I'm not a patient person," Stewart said. "I sometimes fly off the handle, but I have to show the people in the (dressing) room that I care so that they care."

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