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The Third Man
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Mar 28 2006, 06:42 PM
Post #1
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Defensive Defenseman
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Canadian Press
3/28/2006 6:24:38 PM
MONTREAL (CP) - Chris Higgins and Mike Komisarek have three things in common - they are both from Long Island, both are first-round draft picks of the Montreal Canadiens and both have played their best hockey since the Olympic break.
Higgins, a 23-year-old rookie from Smithtown, N.Y., had only six goals in 54 games before the Feb. 12-26 break, but had nine in the first 15 games after the Olympics.
Komisarek, a third-year defenceman from West Islip, N.Y., scored his first career NHL goal on March 20 in Washington and after an up-and-down first half of the season, has been steady in his own zone.
Both have become important figures in the Canadiens' playoff push.
For Komisarek, the break was therapy. He spent the first part of the season worried about his ailing 51-year-old mother, Kathy, and then dealing with her death from pancreatic cancer in late November.
Before her death, he had been flying home to Long Island nearly every Sunday to see her and he took three games off after she died to grieve with his family.
"The Olympic break was a huge time for me," the 24-year-old Komisarek said before the Canadiens played against his hometown team, the New York Islanders, on Tuesday. "I went down to Florida, recharged my batteries and just got rejuvenated.
"I watched the Olympics there and got such an urge to get back on the ice. It was a tough first half of the season with everything that was going on. Things seemed to build up and you felt kind of overwhelmed by everything, but I came back from the break with a clear mind and I've been going out there and having fun."
When NHL play resumed on Feb. 28, Komisarek started showing the solid physical play and crisp breakout passes that moved the Canadiens to draft the six-foot-four, 240-pound defenceman seventh overall in 2001 out of the University of Michigan.
And he finally scored in his 123rd NHL game, taking a drop pass from Alex Kovalev and drilling a long shot that trickled through Washington goaltender Olaf Kolzig's pads and into the net.
"I didn't see it go in," he said. "Next thing I know, Kovalev says `you scored' and Zednik came up and he had the puck.
"I looked at the bench and the guys were going bananas. It's like they won the Stanley Cup. It was definitely a good feeling."
The next night, both Komisarek and Higgins had large groups of family and friends in the seats for a game on Long Island and Komisarek nearly scored again in a 3-1 loss to the Islanders.
"I came around the net and it went through (Isles goaltender Rick) DiPietro's legs and out the other side," he said. "I couldn't believe it."
Higgins, a six-foot 190-pound forward, was drafted 14th overall by Montreal out of Yale in 2002. He has found the net lately while playing on one of the top lines with Saku Koivu and Michael Ryder.
"I came back with a new outlook, I guess," Higgins said. "I just thought about it during the break.
"I thought I could play better. And those guys are playing really well too - Saku and Ryder, They're making nice passes and I'm on the receiving end."
Higgins has been averaging more than 15 minutes of ice time per game, and he's mostly earned it with consistent effort and two-way play. Now he's flirting with a 20-goal rookie season.
"I didn't expect to be scoring as much as I am now," he said. "I had hoped to make the team right from training camp, but I didn't think I'd be playing this many minutes."
Komisarek and Higgins first played together as peewees and moved up the ranks together.
They split to go to different universities, but both played for the U.S., at the world junior championship during the 2001-02 season and were reunited again during the lockout last season with the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.
Now, they are teammates in the NHL.
"It's pretty crazy," said Higgins. "I watched the year he got drafted and I was thrilled for him that he got picked by the Canadiens.
"When I ended up there, it didn't sink in right away that he was there, too."
Higgins was a Canadiens fans as a youngster, but Komisarek rooted for the Islanders.
During the summer, they stay in shape skating at an arena with several current and former Islanders, including DiPietro, Alexei Yashin and Jason Blake.
And other than twins Chris and Peter Ferraro of Port Jefferson, N.Y., who were up and down from the minors with a few organizations in the 1990s, they are the only NHL players to come out of the Long Island sprawl thus far.
But neither player thinks about returning home to play, especially with the Canadiens looking like a playoff team and Islanders in disarray.
"We have family and friends at home that go to a lot of Islander games and they're always telling me how much they'd love for me to be down there, but we're too concerned about what's going on here," said Komisarek. "We're looking ahead, not behind us."
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=160418&hubname=nhl
So, they work out with us, live here .... PLEASE LET US WIN!!!
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Webb20
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Mar 28 2006, 07:07 PM
Post #2
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4CUPZ
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Mar 28 2006, 07:10 PM
Post #3
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