Pittsburgh Penguins come back, defeat Islanders on Sidney Crosby’s OT winner
Dec 3, 2013; Uniondale, NY, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) is congratulated by Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) and Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Chris Kunitz (14) and Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen (2) and Pittsburgh Penguins left wing James Neal (18) after scoring the game-tying goal against the New York Islanders during the third period of a game at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Penguins defeated the Islanders 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Once again the Pittsburgh Penguins came back from a multi-goal deficit, this time against the New York Islanders.
Sidney Crosby won the game in overtime Tuesday night as the Penguins improved to 19-9-1 this season and now are nine points ahead in the Metropolitan Division. It was great surge from the Penguins tonight. Let’s take a look at how the scoring went down.
In the first period, it was all Islanders. They scored on a puck that bounced around bodies and was reviewed but Kyle Okposo got credited for the goal as the Islanders struck early to make it 1-0.
Then, the Islanders scored again when Okposo slapped a long shot past Marc-Andre Fleury that he should have had. The Penguins would not score in in the first and it was 2-0 going into the second.
Both teams had great chances to score in the second but each team’s netminder was just outstanding. The Penguins finally scored late in the frame when James Neal fired a beautiful shot off an assist from Evgeni Malkin that went past Islanders goaltender Anders Nilsson to cut the lead in half.
The third period was just filled with excitement. Both teams got power plays and could not score as the game was starting to get rough as Malkin was getting a bit angry with some of the Islanders players.
The Penguins would tie the game courtesy of guess who: Crosby. It was a wicked wrist shot that went five-hole on the Isles goaltender during a power play. There would be no other scoring in the period as this game would be headed to overtime.
Both teams would get a point in the standings but Pittsburgh wanted two. The overtime started out 3-on-3 and then Pittsburgh got a power play for a little bit but they couldn’t make anything out of that.
Magic happened next. With a little less that 1:30 to go in overtime, Crosby got the puck in the neutral zone, skated 1 on 3 against the Isles and made an amazing deke to win the game.
It looked like a Mario Lemieux goal because of the way he scored, flicking the puck through Nilsson from in close.
Next up the Penguins play at home against the surging San Jose Sharks who are one of the best west coast teams right now.