MacDonald Stars in Loss to Devils; Playoff Push for the Sound Tigers

Well, what can you say about Joey MacDonald? Even got himself a little chant going amongst the Islander faithful last night. MacDonald is surely making the most of his opportunity to play for the Islanders. He was outstanding last night making 45 saves in a losing effort to the Devils.

The Islanders-slash-Sound Tigers managed only 22 shots on Martin Brodeur. Big Josef Vasicek got a breakaway goal for the Isles. Our boys had a valiant defensive effort that was just blown to hell when Zach Parise deflected a puck past MacDonald 29 seconds into the overtime session. Parise is really making the Islanders pay for taking Robert Nilsson in the draft a few years ago. Man, if we could get a do-over on that pick, that would be sweet.

The Devils, with the victory, finally claimed a playoff spot. The Isles, while playing a spirited and spunky brand of hockey, seem on the brink of locking up a decent pick for the 2008 Entry Draft.

The Sound Tigers play Manchester tonight. They are four points out of fourth place. Get this Iron Man stat from the Connecticut Post's Mike Fornabaio: Sunday's Sound Tiger game versus Hartford (boo!) was the tenth in 13 days for Matthew Spiller and Steve Regier. They both played seven games in eight days. Tim Jackman played six games in seven days on the Long Island to Bridgeport shuttle and eight games in the last twelve days.

No wonder the Isles called up Drew Fata, Matt Keith, and Kip Brennan, eh?

Link to Mike Fornabaio's Sound Tigers coverage for the Connecticut Post: http://www.connpost.com/soundtigers