"Allowing three goals in his first nine shots wasn't pretty, but Rick DiPietro did appear to make it through his first game in nearly a year without getting hurt.

"It was good to get back out there and shake the rust off," said DiPietro, who had not appeared in a game since Jan. 2 before playing for the Islanders' AHL affiliate last night. "I hadn't been out there in a long time. There's still a lot of work to be done."

More importantly, he reported no problems with his surgically-repaired knee and added that how he felt today would be "big."

DiPietro wound up playing two full periods, as expected. The 28-year-old faced 13 shots in a 7-3 win over Springfield in front of Islanders owner Charles Wang and general manager Garth Snow among an announced crowd of 3,650 at the Arena at Harbor Yard that was more like 1,000."