The team will not be named until sometime in June,

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New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Jaroslav Halaks 27 saves and a dominant second period kept the Islanders the toast of New York, as the current Metropolitan Division leaders dealt the crosstown rival Rangers a 3-0 defeat at Madison Square Garden. Anders Lee, Nikolay Kulemin and Frans Nielsen all lit the lamp during the middle session to help the Islanders close out a season-high seven-game road trip with five wins and remain ahead of Pittsburgh for the division lead. The Rangers entered Tuesdays anticipated showdown with victories in 13 of their previous 14 games, but couldnt maintain the momentum as Halak outplayed Henrik Lundqvist and the Isles finished with a 44-27 advantage in shots. Lundqvist was replaced by Cam Talbot at the start of the third period after stopping 29-of-32 chances. Wholesale Jerseys . - Hall of Fame centre Bill Russell was arrested this week at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after Transportation Security Administration officials found a loaded gun in his luggage. Wholesale Jerseys China ., native Andrew Wiggins wasnt around a year ago for one of the worst nights in Kansas basketball history. http://www.wholesalejerseysace.us/ . Shaqiri scored a pair of first-half goals and added another in the second Wednesday to give Switzerland a 3-0 victory over Honduras, a result that put the Swiss in second place in Group E behind France.If you could send one message to your 14-year-old self, what would it be? For Canadian gymnast Kristina Vaculik, the answer comes easily. "Have patience." The message may sound precocious, or perhaps somewhat ironic, coming from a teenage university student. But at 19, Vaculik is considered a veteran in her sport. "Im the oldest one now, so I kind of like to act as the team leader and be in the mentoring position as well. It fits well," Vaculik said in a recent interview with CTVOlympics.ca. "They called me mom around the [Pan American Games]." An Olympic hopeful who recently helped Canada qualify its first full womens Olympic gymnastics team since 2004, Vaculik is preparing to pit herself against many of the countrys top gymnasts -- and her occasional teammates -- at this weeks Elite Canada gymnastics competition in Mississauga, Ont. She is among the more experienced Canadian competitors in the sport, with more than four years of senior-level competition experience under her belt. While it may not seem like a particularly lengthy tenure, it is a full career span for many elite gymnasts. One hole in her resume is her lack of an Olympic Games experience; however Missing out on Beijing 2008 might just be the most useful experience of all. "I was really hoping to go to the Olympics in 2008," Vaculik said, and then paused. "But it just didnt happen." Canada did not qualify a full team for the Games that year, and Gymnastics Canada was faced with the difficult task of choosing just two athletes to compete. At just 15-years of age at the time, Vaculik narrowly missed the cut. Although she was named to the reserve squad, a subsequent elbow injury pulled her out of that position as well. "It was just from constant pounding and that year leading up to the Olympics was really not good for it because thats when I was just competing, training. I competed every weekend up to the Olympics trying to gain points [to qualify]. By the time I was named as the reserve, my elbow was just not good. So I had to pull out and get surgery." The Whitby, Ont. native faced six months of recovery time before she was allowed to return to training. She worried she would miss out on university scholarship offers because she was unable to compete. And she spent the next two years regaining her skills and re-learning how to execute the tumbles and leaps she had grown up executing to perfection. Patience was gained in spades during those long years. "This sport is hard on the body ... maybe if youre injured and if youre not patient with the recovery process you can get more injured and its pretty frustrating," Vaculik said. "When Im training with a group of girls, I know that you look at one another and you look at how other girls are learning new skills and how they might be learning faster than you. "I tell my [younger] sister things like that and girls in my club. I train with a group of younger girls. Ten-or-12-year-olds. Ive told them things like that ... that its all just a matter of time. If youre patient, if you know that you work hard every day in the gym, its just a matter of practising and putting your best into it every day. Everyone learns at her own pace. Thats the patience part." The womens gymnastics national team director, Kyna Fletcher, watched Vaculik go through the heartbreak of missing the Olympic Games her first time around. "At that point, Kristina was really young, not that it means anything," Fletcher said. "But to have a second go-around, shes very, very fortunate. And were fortunate to have her that driven. I think thats a huge example for us. She could have quit and walked away. Easily. And she didnt." Ahead of the Olympic qualifying event in London last month, Fletcher brought up Vaculiks experience with the team. If we dont qualify a full team of five girls, she told them, you will have to go through that selection process again. "As a team, we sat down and talked about it, Ok, girls, which one are we going to send?&quoot; Fletcher recalled.dddddddddddd "[Kristina] said to me, There needs to be a whole team there. I dont want to do this on my own." The team succeeded at the January qualifier where the 2008 team did not. Their combined score of 221.913 led them to a second-place finish. It was more than good enough for full-team qualification. Fifteen-year-old Victoria Moors -- the youngest athlete from any nation to compete in the London event -- was among the athletes that helped Canada to its qualifying finish. "When I was 10 years old, I watched Canada on YouTube. I would just, go on the gymnastics website and kind of be like, Oh, I want to be like them one day. But now Im competing on their team. It lights me up completely," Moors said at the time. "This is actually my first big competition so I havent really had anything like that before. People are coming up, asking me for my autograph and Im just like, well this is a first. Its really cool." Moors is a budding talent that greatly impressed Gymnastics Canada at a selection camp ahead of the competition, but she had never before competed at a senior international level. The leap upward could have been overwhelming, but Vaculik made sure that Moors knew her door was always open. "Basically, if she was uncomfortable in any way, she had us to come to. ...We all have each others back," Vaculik said. "I know its hard being younger and being with a group of older girls because you feel pressure and like you have to live up to standard, but its not really about any of that. Its about going out there and doing what you know you can do." Teammate Peng Peng Lee, 18, watched and admired as Vaculik took the 15-year-old under her wing at that competition. Moors went on to finish second in the floor exercise final. "I look up to Kristina. Shes a team leader," Lee said. "She keeps us going. She always makes sure that were on track and were focused. There are a lot of gymnasts I look up to, like [four-time Olympic medallist] Shawn Johnson, and all those big names. But Kristina always makes sure that no one is left alone and that no one is being isolated. So we always feel like a team. And [in London], that was amazing. Because we all needed to be as a team." Becoming a team in a sport that emphasizes individual achievement is no easy feat. Canadas top gymnasts come from across the country and train separately until they gather at competitions and occasional team selection camps. According to Fletcher, veterans like Vaculik have a lot to offer the younger competitors. Canadian teammates Lee and Brittany Rogers were also a great help in London, she said. "I think they set a good example. They have a calmness about them because of their experience. Weve really worked at getting them to sort of pull the girls in and make sure that were all together no matter what. Were one." Fletcher expects the veterans to continue to play a big part in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympic Games. The team will not be named until sometime in June, and the girls will have just a few short weeks to come together before the Games begin. "I think trying to put [young gymnasts] into as many circumstances as you can with those girls to kind of be able to model and mentor the behaviour ... and the mental preparation, I think thats important. Its great for them to kind of be able to model behind that and for us to encourage them and be able to say, Hey. Have a look at So-And-So. Shes dealt with adversity, shes dealt with this and shes still come through on the other side." Teammates have picked up the message. Asked which gymnasts she admired, 17-year-old Olympic hopeful Madeline Gardiner thought of Vaculik right away. "Kristina tried for the 2008 Olympics and shes back again for 2012", she said. "Were all super proud of her and she had a previous injury, but shes back and doing really well and thats just inspiring. "It kind of gives you a little bit of hope knowing that you have almost a second chance." wholesale jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '