The New York Islanders have become "The Little Team That Could." Somehow, someway, they are finding ways to win hockey games, despite missing four of their top six defensemen and their number two center and despite the fact that they have struggled to score goals all season. Thursday night, the Islanders got stellar goaltending from Rick DiPietro, solid team defense and a timely goal from Miro Satan to down the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 at the Nassau Coliseum. The victory extended the Islanders' winning streak to six games and gave them points in their last seven contests. It also pulled them to within one point of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with just one game remaining on the schedule before the trade deadline.

Even Isles' coach Ted Nolan wasn't sure how his team was doing it. “Good living and good praying. I’m not sure what it is,” Nolan joked after Thursday's game.

The game was not very artistic but it was effective. Both teams had played the previous night and both showed signs of fatigue. The Islanders enjoyed an advantage because the Lightning rely more on their top line of Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards who each logged more than 21 minutes of ice time while the Isles rolled their lines more evenly.

"After last night's game, it was tough for us and tough for them," Satan explained. "We knew they're using their first line a bit too much and those guys might be tired at the end. We just tried to regularly change and use everybody and hoped that by the third period, we'd have a little advantage and that's exactly what happened."

The Isles outplayed the Lightning in the first period and outshot them 14-7 but rookie goalie Karri Ramo kept the Islanders off the board. In the second period, DiPietro was the star, making 11 stops, many of them robbing the Lightning of quality scoring chances.

The only goal of the game came just 5:37 seconds into the third period. Sean Bergenheim made the play, heading down the right wing and occupying two Tampa Bay defenders before dishing to Satan who rifled a hard shot over Ramo's pads to give New York a 1-0 lead.

"Sean made a great play," Satan said. "He basically tied up two guys and made a great spin-o-rama and gave me the puck. I had full speed ahead and I used my speed to set up the shot and was able to beat the goalie."

Rookie defenseman Drew Fata earned his first NHL assist on the goal, giving him one goal and one assist in five career NHL games. The 24-year-old Fata was playing his second game this season for the Islanders in place of the injured Andy Sutton. The Isles were also still without Brendan Witt, Chris Campoli and Bruno Gervais.

DiPietro was quick to praise his defensemen. "They're playing great," the Islander goalie said. "Guys are stepping up. Fata comes in, he's played well. Freddy's [Meyer] stepped up, he's played really well. Marty's [Martinek] played well. You just go down the list and guys are stepping up. It's crunch time now and we need everybody."

Ted Nolan was also pleased with the play of all of his defensemen. "If you take the top four defensemen from any team in this league, it's a tough hole to dig yourself out of but right now, Meyer and Martinek, those guys have really stepped up their play. Aaron Johnson has a little bit more playing time now. Berard and Bergeron have started to lift up their games, so it's working and young [Drew] Fata comes in and does a few things for us, so they're all working together for us right now.

The Lightning put a lot of pressure on DiPietro in the third period but the Isles' lone All-Star Game representative was equal to the task. He stopped 14 shots in the final period and 32 overall for the game to earn his third shutout of the season. Tampa Bay's best chance came on a shot by Lecavalier with just over five minutes left in the third period. The puck went past DiPietro and off the post before landing behind the Islander goalie who smothered it. A double minor by Shane O'Brien with 1:53 left on the clock all but ended the Lightning's comeback hopes.

Enforcer Chris Simon returned to action for the Islanders in last night's game for the first time since his NHL-record 30-game suspension for stepping on Jarrko Ruutu of the Penguins with his skate blade. Simon played a little more than six minutes in his return and heard a chorus of mostly boos from the fans at the Nassau Coliseum.

The veteran forward was pleased by the response of his teammates and happy to be back on the ice. "I'm so proud of the way the guys welcomed me back," Simon said. "It's a great feeling to be part a part of this team. I'm going to do whatever I can to help us get better and just move on. What's in the past is there. For me to be effective and do what I can, I have to be in the moment and focus on each game and each shift. I can't control what other people think, all I can do is work hard and play hard."

The Islanders' next test comes Saturday afternoon when they travel to New Jersey to take on the Devils in an important division game. Right now, the team has its longest winning streak since December 2003 and is happy with the way things are going.

"I think the harder we're working, the luckier we're getting," Nolan said. "Before we weren't working and we weren't getting any breaks and we weren't lucky so it all folds into one. Right now, things are going well and we just have to find a way to keep it going."

NOTES: The Islanders sent Jeff Tambellini down to Bridgeport to make room for Simon on the roster. Simon played on the fourth line with Frans Nielson and Blake Comeau.