Mon Oct 13 11:08:18 2008

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Isles welcome Sabres for afternoon test at the Coliseum

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(Sports Network) - After sitting out New York's first two games of the season, goaltender Rick DiPietro could make his season debut this afternoon in the Islanders' clash with the Buffalo Sabres at Nassau Coliseum.

DiPietro has been serving as the Islanders' backup for their first two tests as he continues to recover from offseason hip surgery. The first overall pick of the 2000 draft suffered the injury at All-Star weekend last January and underwent season-ending surgery in March.

Joey MacDonald has started in place of DiPietro and after making 27 saves in a season-opening loss to the Devils on Friday, he turned aside 24 shots in Saturday's 5-2 win over St. Louis.

Mike Comrie, Trent Hunter, Sean Bergenheim and Andy Hilbert all scored in the first period for the Isles, with Bill Guerin adding an empty-net tally in the third. Bruno Gervais and Doug Weight each had two assists in the win.

The victory was the first for new head coach Scott Gordon, who is serving as an NHL head coach for the first time in his career.

Gordon would like to go with DiPietro, who is in the third season of a 15- year, $67.5 million contract he signed with the club. DiPietro, who has battled hip and knee injuries during his career, went 26-28-7 with a 2.82 goals against average in 63 starts last year and is 7-7-1 with a 2.68 GAA in 16 career starts versus Buffalo.

Defenseman Radek Martinek is questionable for tonight's game as well due to a right shoulder injury suffered against the Blues.

Buffalo enters this test with just one game under its belt so far, as the Sabres bested Montreal, 2-1, in a shootout on Friday. Thomas Vanek scored the regulation goal for Buffalo, which finished 10th in the Eastern Conference last year.

Ales Kotalik then started the shootout for Buffalo, going forehand-to-backhand and lifting the puck over Carey Price's right pad. After Ryan Miller denied Robert Lang, Drew Stafford mirrored Kotalik's movements and beat Price as well.

Montreal's Saku Koivu then lost control of the puck and failed to get off a quality shot to end the game.

Miller made 27 saves to get the win. He has made 13 starts in his career against the Islanders, going 7-6-0 with a 3.02 GAA.

This is the first of two straight road games in New York for the Sabres. The club went 19-16-6 on the road last year and will visit the Rangers on Wednesday.

These two clubs split four meetings a year ago, though Buffalo has won two straight and nine of the last 12 in the series. The Sabres have won four of their last six as the visitor in the series.