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UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Everything was in place for a rousing night at Nassau Coliseum. Someone forgot to tell the Detroit Red Wings. Luc Robitaille got the equalizer with 10 seconds left in regulation and Steve Yzerman scored his second goal of the game 2:22 into overtime as the Red Wings handed the New York Islanders their first loss of the season, 5-4. Returning from an historic 4-0 season-opening road trip and playing before a raucous crowd, the Islanders took a 4-3 lead with 3:59 left in the third period on Oleg Kvasha's second goal of the night. But Detroit pulled goaltender Manny Legace for a sixth attacker in the final minute and forced overtime on Robitaille's second goal of the season. Yzerman took a shot from the right point that was stopped by goalie Chris Osgood. Robitaille got away from his check in tight on the left side and pushed the puck by the former Red Wing to force overtime. "When I saw Stevie on the boards, I knew he was going to shoot," Robitaille said. "And (Tomas) Holmstrom played in front of the net really well, and I knew he was going to stay there. So I stood on the side and just stayed there. I just made sure I got it out of the pile as quick as I could." "A bit of a lucky play," Osgood said. "It hit off three guys and instead of going one way, it went right to him." Defenseman Roman Hamrlik had a spectacular chance to send the sellout crowd home happy when he got to a rebound alone in the slot. But he shot into Legace's chest and Detroit counterattacked 2-on-none. It developed into a 3-on-1 and Yzerman finished the three-way passing play by taking a quick feed from Brett Hull and waiting patiently before wristing a shot by a helpless Osgood for his third goal of the season. "It's basically a 3-on-0, although I think everyone's just thinking 2-on-0," Hull said. "The whole world thought, 'It's going to Brett Hull, he's going to shoot it.' Well, if everyone's thinking that, what do you do? I throw it to Stevie and that's, to me, the play." The loss spoiled a stellar night for the line of Kvasha, Alexei Yashin and Mariusz Czerkawski, which combined for four goals and six assists. The Islanders were trying for the first 5-0-0 start in team history. In 1976-77, they opened 5-0-1 before getting blanked by the Red Wings, 5-0. "It's disappointing," said Osgood, who backstopped Detroit to a Stanley Cup in 1998 but was claimed by the Isles in last month's waiver draft. "We came so close, but the last two games, we got three out of four points against two of the best teams in the league. "I wanted to win bad, real bad. Obviously, I know their tendencies, but practice and a game are two different things." Detroit got goals from all three of its 600-goal scorers and improved to 3-0-0 on the road. Asked about facing Osgood, Yzerman said, "Once we got going in the game, you really didn't have time to think about it. It was a pretty tight game. For this stage of the year, a pretty intense game. We just got in the flow of it and never thought about it much at all." Kvasha and Detroit's Sergei Fedorov traded first-period goals and Yashin and Hull scored on the power play in the second. Yashin gave New York a 3-2 lead 3:11 into the third when he took a pass from Kvasha and wristed a laser into the top left corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season. Yzerman tied it with 7:15 to go in regulation. The Red Wings were able to pull Legace during a delayed penalty and Yzerman's blast from the top of the left faceoff circle made its way through traffic and beat Osgood to the glove side. Just over three minutes later, Kvasha stole the puck from defenseman Maxim Kuznetsov and slid a backhander between Legace's pads. "It's disappointing," first-year Islanders coach Peter Laviolette said. "We were just nine seconds away. But I'm very proud of the effort. It was so exciting, the building was so pumped, and so were we."
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