By Brian Bohl
UNIONDALE, NY- Blake Comeau’s descriptive powers wouldn’t fill a scouting report. But his assessment of Sean Bergenheim encapsulated the hot streak his Islander teammate is currently riding.
“It seems like all of his goals are highlight goals,” Comeau said.
Bergenheim extended his theatrics into a literal last-second goal. With .7 remaining on the clock Saturday against New Jersey, the Finnish forward shrugged off fierce defensive pressure from future Hall of Famer Brendan Shanahan, firing a near 90-degree shot from the goal line along the bench-side boards that somehow found the side of the net for an empty-net goal. That tally marked Bergenheim’s first career hat trick as the Isles posted a 7-3 victory.
Since coming to the Isles as a first-round draft pick in 2002, the 25-year-old is starting to show the skills that made him a top prospect earlier in the decade. He notched goals 12, 13 and 14 on the season, including the first two against goaltender Martin Brodeur, who was previous 4-0 since returning from injury.
“He just competes so hard and he’s getting the results now for all that work he’s putting in,” teammate Frans Nielsen said. “We’re all happy for him because he’s such a great teammate and he always does his best whenever he is on the ice.”
Beating Brodeur, who is also a lock first-ballot Hall of Famer, took a combination of deft skating, opportunistic shooting and some good puck-movement from teammates during a contest that saw the last-place Isles dominate a Devils squad still in contention for the Eastern Conference’s top playoff seed.
“He’s playing really well. You can see his work ethic on the puck, just to hound that puck and get it back,” said Kyle Okposo, another member of the Isles youth movement who already has notched 15 goals in his rookie campaign. “He’s getting to the [correct] areas. Like his second goal, he gets it off the wall, springs to the middle and shoots. And his first since, he crashed the net.
“He’s been playing tremendous for us.”
That sentiment didn’t seem likely at the start of the season. First-year head coach Scott Gordon replaced Ted Nolan in the off season and instituted a system where Bergenheim was asked to split his concentration between fore checking and scoring. Veterans like Brendan Witt voiced complaints about Gordon’s overcharge system and Bergenheim seemed more likely to become trade bait than emerge as a potential 20-goal scorer, registering just four goals in his first 30 games, including a 14-game goal-less streak from Nov. 24-Dec.27.
Chris Campoli, a fellow young homegrown Islander, got so exasperated in Gordon’s system that he requested and received a trade to Ottawa along with Mike Comrie last month. Yet Bergenheim took a different path. Standing in the corner of the Isles dressing room, the 5-11, 200-pound left winger wouldn’t divulge details of a discussion that he said led to a turnaround. Whether the conversation was with Gordon or a fellow player, the result was a revived scoring touch from a player once billed as one of the organization’s top prospects. Bergenheim has seven goals and eight points in the past nine games as the Islanders have picked up points in six of the last seven games.
“There was something that happened that made me realized I have to play with my strengths, that was a big thing,” Bergenheim said. “It was off the ice, but I don’t want to go into it.
“The problem was, from my point of view, me thinking too much with a new defensive system. When you think too much, you’re a little too late, you’re positioning is off. [Now] I feel comfortable on the ice that maybe the system has grown on every player so the thinking part isn’t as much. It’s more reaction than thinking.”
Bergenheim played just 46 combined games in his first two NHL seasons. He scored just one goal in 18 games during his call-up from AHL Bridgeport in 2003-04 and added just four goals in 28 games in the 2005-06 campaign.
Then came the lowlight the following season. Bergenheim did not wear an Islanders uniform for a single game in 2006-07. Agent Mark Gandler could not reach a contract agreement with the club and owner Charles Wang decided not to sign him that season after the impasse. The Isles still maintained his rights, though Bergenheim went to play for Russia’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl before signing with Frolunda HC Goteborg of the Swedish Elite League.
But Bergenheim was able to secure a contract to come back to the Isles in 2007. He posted a then-career high 10 goals in 78 games last season. The Helsinki native is again proving his durability, playing 55 games while setting a new career high with 14 goals and counting. On a team that still claims the NHL’s second fewest wins and least amount of points (52), Bergenheim has been responsible defensively, logging a respectable minus-3.
“If I play the way I feel I can, I think the goals are going to come because I’m creating chances. Then it’s just about putting the puck in,” Bergenheim said about his scoring potential. “I believe I can do a better job than I am doing.”
Gordon, usually stoic behind the bench, gave a huge smile when the hats crashed to the Nassau Coliseum ice following Bergenheim’s third goal against the Devils. In his post-game remarks, Gordon attributed puck possession to Bergenheim’s maturation.
“What I stress to him that the better offensive players cut back and protect the puck,” Gordon said. “A perfect example was the empty net goal. It was all set up by his stopping, pulling it through Shanahan’s legs and putting it in the net. What’s impressive is what he did to set it up. He’s doing more of that than he’s done at any time this year.”