Pens Rally, Beat Islanders 6-3
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (KDKA) – The Pittsburgh Penguins overcame a slow start against the Islanders Saturday night to win 6-3.
James Neal had two goals and five other Penguins players had two-point games as the Penguins improved to 4-0 against the Islanders this season.
However, the Penguins dug themselves an early hole in the first period.
David Ullstrom drove to the net and caught Marc-Andre Fleury slightly off his angle with a shot under the crossbar to put New York up 1-0 just 4:04 into the game.
About eight minutes later, Milan Jurcina hammered a slap shot by Fleury through traffic to put the Islanders up 2-0.
Jurcina's goal seemed to wake the Penguins up and just over two minutes later, they finally got on the board.
Joe Vitale won a loose puck battle after an Islanders' defenseman bobbled the puck at their own blue line. Vitale swooped in and fed Steve Sullivan on the back door for the easy goal. The goal was Sullivan's fifth of the season.
The Penguins weren't done yet. With under a minute to play in the period, Chris Kunitz gained the red line and dumped the puck into the New York zone.
Kunitz raced after the puck and forced the defenseman to reverse the play behind his net. However, Evgeni Malkin read the play beautifully, intercepted the pass and fed Neal for a quick one-timer goal to tie the game 2-2.
However, the Islanders would regain the lead early in the second period.
An odd-man rush left Kyle Okposo with the puck on his stick in the high slot and he fired a quick shot over Fleury's glove to put New York up 3-2.
Later in the period, a bizarre sequence of events tilted the game in the Penguins' favor.
With the Islanders on the power play, Vitale drew an interference penalty to even things up. During 4-on-4 play, Brooks Orpik was hit by Travis Hamonic and fell to the ice in obvious discomfort.
Hamonic was given a five-minute major for elbowing and was ejected from the game. Orpik went to the locker room bleeding from a cut between his eyes.
However, television replays showed that Hamonic's hit knocked Orpik's own stick into his face while he was bracing for contact.
The result of the play eventually led to a 5-on-3 power play for the Penguins.
Neal scored his second goal of the game after finding a rebound around the crease to tie the game 3-3.
From that point on, it was the Penguins' game to lose.
Pascal Dupuis put the Penguins ahead for good with a quick slap shot off the rush with just over four minutes to play in the second period.
In the third, Matt Cooke struck early and Paul Martin snapped a 79-game goalless streak to cap the scoring for the Penguins.
Fleury made 24 saves to improve to 12-0-2 in his last 14 games against the Islanders.
Pittsburgh will return home to take on the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday night at CONSOL Energy Center.
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