First period Quick hits:

One of the biggest matchups in tonight’s tilt are the goaltenders-Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak. Halak has led the Islanders to the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference with 26 wins (third in NHL) and four shutouts (fifth in NHL). Rask, on the other side, has 20 wins (10th in NHL) and he is 6-1-4 in his last 11 starts. After the first period, Rask is outplaying his counterpart Halak after the first 20 minutes. Rask has stopped all 15 shots while Halak has stopped only nine of 11 shots thrown on him.

The Islanders received the first power-play of the game as David Krejci committed the game’s first penalty. The Black and Gold have killed 38-of their last 40 penalties to this point. It was much of the same as the B’s penalty kill was on point making it 39-of-41 now killed.

Reilly Smith started the scoring as he received a beautiful tape-to-tape pass from Milan Lucic. Smith got inside position and went back door beating Halak. It was Smith’s 10th goal of the season and his first goal in his last 11 games. Lucic notched his 17th assist of the season and it may have been his prettiest.

Patrice Bergeron seemed to have no hangover from the All-Star festivities as he extended the B’s lead to 2-0 on his 12th goal of the season (PPG). It was a pretty curl and drag move where he then ripped it top corner past Halak giving the B’s a two goal advantage.

B’s ex-defenseman Johnny Boychuk led all Islanders’ skaters with 6:44 of ice time. During that span he recorded one hit and two blocked shots.