INSIDE HOCKEY

Phil Kessel's hat trick helped lead the Boston Bruins to a 6-2 win over the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum Sunday evening in the season finale for both clubs. Marc Savard added a goal and two assists and Tim Thomas made 32 saves to earn the victory for the Bruins.

Boston finished the season with season with 116 points and the top seed in the Eastern Conference. They will open the playoffs this week at home against their historic rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. The Islanders finished with the league's worst record and will learn Tuesday night whether they will have the first or second overall pick in this summer's NHL Entry Draft.

The Bruins place in the standings would not be changed by the outcome of this game, so they rested All-Star defenseman Zdeno Chara. The contest was not a physical one with the Bruins registering only 10 hits while the Islanders were generously credited with 22.

For the Bruins, the win was important after a disappointing 6-1 loss to the Sabres Saturday. "It’s always good to get the win and take a little confidence with us going into Thursday," Thomas said. "We didn’t have our best on Saturday night, so it’s always good to come up with a good effort for ourselves."

It took the Bruins only 23 seconds to get on the scoreboard and take a lead they never relinquished. Michael Ryder scored on a 2-on-1 breakaway off a nice pass from David Krejci. Ryder lifted the puck over the shoulder of New York goalie Yann Danis and it was quickly 1-0 Boston.

The first of Kessel's three goals on the night gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead with just 4:40 left in the first period. A hard shot from the right point by Blake Wheeler was turned aside by Danis but the rebound came right to Kessel at the left circle who had plenty of time to deposit the puck into the open side of the net.

The Bruins next two tallies came on the power play. Savard scored on a wraparound when Danis seemed to lose track of the puck behind the goal at the 1:09 mark. Then Kessel beat the Islander starter to the short side from the deep slot just over four minutes later to increase the Bruins' lead to 4-0. Joey MacDonald replaced Danis who had allowed four goals on just 15 shots.

The change in netminders had little immediate affect when Chuck Kobasew put a backhander past MacDonald who was screened on the play and unable to get set to stop the shot.

The Islanders broke up Thomas' shutout bid with 1:51 left in the middle stanza on a slap shot from the left points by defenseman Radek Martinek. Doug Weight tapped home a centering pass from Kyle Okposo at the 1:27 mark of the third period to close the gap to 5-2. Kessel's one timer from the left circle rounded out the scoring and completed the hat trick for the Bruins' star. Kessel finished the season with a team-leading 36 goals on the season.

Despite his team's league-worst record, Islanders' Coach Scott Gordon was pleased with the progress his young team showed in the second half of the season. "We have some elements of team identity to carry over into next season," Gordon said. "The second half of the season flew by with the attitude and commitment we had."

The Bruins are set to begin what they hope will be a long playoff run either Wednesday or Thursday against the Canadiens. The Islanders have a long but potentially eventful offseason as they prepare for 2009-10.

NOTES:
The Islanders did not have a 20-goal scorer on their roster for the first time in the franchise's 37-year history. That includes the 48-game lockout season of 1994-95 and their expansion season of 1972-73 which saw them win only 12 games. Okposo led all Islanders with 18 goals. Defenseman Mark Streit was next with 16.

New York's Frans Nielsen won 8-of-9 faceoffs during the game.

The Islanders recalled forward Trevor Smith from Bridgeport for the game and returned forward Mitch Fritz to their AHL affiliate.