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Moulson, Isles take on Wild in St. Paul

Fri 20th, November 2009

(Sports Network) - The Islanders' Matt Moulson didn't enter the season with the label "goal scorer" attached to his name. Twenty-one games into the NHL season, that might have to change.

Fresh off his first career two-goal game, Moulson will look to lead New York to another win tonight on its seven-game road trip in a matchup with the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

Skating in his third season, Moulson entered the 2009-10 campaign with six goals and 10 points in 29 games over the previous two seasons, both with the Los Angeles Kings. The 26-year-old has 10 goals and 18 points through 21 games with the Islanders, however, and netted a pair of tallies in Monday's 4-1 victory over Boston.

Richard Park added three assists, while rookie John Tavares and Trent Hunter both scored as well. Dwayne Roloson notched the win with a 28-save performance, helping the Islanders improve to 2-0-2 on their road trip and 3-4-5 overall as the guest this year.

"[The Bruins] a great offensive team," Roloson said. "They get pucks in our end. They are able to control the puck and our guys did a great job of not allowing them to get any quality chances."

New York could have Brendan Witt back in the lineup tonight after he left the team briefly for an undisclosed personal reason. He is with the team and is questionable for tonight.

The Wild have dropped four straight games, losing all but one of those games by a single goal. That includes a pair of shootout losses and a 3-2 setback to the Coyotes on Wednesday.

Antti Miettinen and Andrew Brunette each had a goal and an assist for Minnesota, which is in danger of matching its season-high five-game slide from October 8-17. Niklas Backstrom finished with 29 saves.

"As a group of five, at least from the bench, it looked like we retreated into our own zone, watching nobody picking up," said Wild coach Todd Richards. "This is, probably I think, our poorest performance of the year."

Already without Petr Sykora (concussion), both Chuck Kobasew and Benoit Pouliot missed Wednesday's games with upper-body injuries.

Minnesota plays the second contest of a four-game homestand and is 5-3-0 as the host this year.

The Wild have won four straight over the Islanders and seven of the 10 all- time meetings, including a 4-1 home win last season on December 19. That was Minnesota's second straight and fourth win in five meetings at home over New York.

Backstrom has never lost to the Islanders, going 3-0-0 with a 1.97 goals- against average versus them, while Roloson is 7-13-3 with a 2.81 GAA lifetime versus the Wild.