Zach Parise's goal just 29 seconds into overtime gave the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders and clinched a playoff berth for Brent Sutter's club. The Devils are now in the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race, two points ahead of the fifth place New York Rangers. Patrick Elias scored the other goal for New Jersey while Josef Vasicek tallied the lone Islander goal. Backup goalie Joey MacDonald made 45 saves in a losing effort.

The Islanders scored first with less than one minute left in the first period. Bill Guerin made a diving lunge for a loose puck and managed to tip it away from Andy Greene and ahead to Vasicek, who was in alone on Martin Brodeur. Vasicek faked out the Devil goalie and backhanded the puck into the net at close range to make the score 1-0 Islanders.

The Devils dominated the second period and outshot the Islanders 21-5 but some great saves by MacDonald kept New Jersey from putting the game out of reach. Elias scored on a power play 5:42 into the middle stanza. He took a pass at the right point and since he was not challenged, skated up to the top of the right circle and let go a slap shot that beat MacDonald and went just under the cross bar. It was Elias' 20th goal of the season and evened the score at 1-1.

New Jersey continued to put pressure on the Islanders in the third period but couldn't solve MacDonald, who made 13 more saves in regulation time. Martin Brodeur was impressed by the play of MacDonald, who was making only his second NHL start of the season after spending most of the year at Bridgeport of the AHL.

“He was great,” Brodeur said. “He didn’t give up many rebounds. He didn’t go out of the net too much. He controlled his own game very well. It’s tough when you play that well and face that many shots and lose, but it’s good for us.”

Isles' coach Ted Nolan was also pleased with his goaltender. "I thought MacDonald played a very solid game," Nolan said. "With all of the inexperience, we give our goaltenders good work. Dubielewicz gave us a good performance the other day and MacDonald played equally well tonight."

Parise, whose father J.P. spent parts of four seasons with the Islanders in the mid-to-late 70s, tipped home the game-winner off a shot by Oduya just 29 seconds into overtime and the Devils were in the playoffs.

“It’s nice to have that ‘X’ by your team in the standings,” Devils' coach Brent Sutter said. “Now, we’ve got to fight for home ice.”

For the Islanders, it was yet another hard fought loss with a depleted roster. "We tried to keep it as basic as we can and it worked in the first period," said Nolan. "That's a very talented team on the other side and eventually they got the better of us."

Defenseman Freddy Meyer said the Islanders still had a lot of pride despite being out of the playoff picture. "Every competition you’re in you want to win,” Meyer said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re not playing for anything or you’re playing for the Stanley Cup. You’re still going out there and you’re working as hard as you can. Obviously, you want to win and that’s what you’ve seen the past couple of games. It speaks numbers for the character of the guys in the locker room.”

The Islanders conclude their season with a home-and-home series against the Rangers this Thursday at the Nassau Coliseum and Friday at Madison Square Garden.

Notes

Defenseman Aaron Johnson was the latest addition to the Islanders list of injured players. He sat out with a rib injury and is listed as day-to-day.

Matt Keith and Drew Fata were recalled from Bridgeport for this game. Keith made his first appearance in an Islanders sweater. He had played 24 NHL games, all with the Chicago Blackhawks. Kip Brennan also made his first appearance in an Islanders' uniform. Brennan has played in 58 previous NHL games with the Kings, Thrashers and Ducks.

Prior to the game, the Islanders announced the signing of Jack Hillen, the leading scorer among NCAA Division I defenseman, to a two-year contract. Hillen, 22, spent the past four seasons at Colorado College and was named the Defenseman of the Year in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in 2007-08. Hillen had six goals and 37 points in 41 games this season. He will join the Isles at practice on Wednesday and may see action in at least one of the Isles' final regular season games against the Rangers.