Islanders vs. Bruins Man of the Match: Josh Bailey

After another impressive islanders road win, the victories are almost starting to run together.

Presently, they are on a 8-1-1 run and sitting in a tie for 6th place in the tight Eastern Conference playoff bubble.

Seven games remain.

Seven men, at least, deserve consideration for starring turns in last night's win, a full team effort.

But obviously Josh Bailey is in pole position for our "man of the match" nod. After pushing through two goals and logging seventeen minutes, including seven strong shifts in each of the final two periods, Bailey deserved his media first star honors.

Yet we'll consider beyond the boxscore for our candidates. Evgeni Nabokov held them in the game during the first period and stopped 30 shots. Travis Hamonic defied science to keep on skating. Lubo and Hickey continued the impressive Lubo and Hickey show. Matt Moulson, a health question mark before the game, led the team with five shots. Captain Mark Streit had assists on both goals.

Bailey's Blast

At the beginning of this play, you can see how close the Islanders were to not scoring this last-minute first-period goal, but perhaps even committing a turnover that might have cost them dearly. Hockey, too, is a game of inches:

Nice shot. Good distracting run to the net by Casey Cizikas, too.