Penguins/Islanders Recap: Pittsburgh’s rally falls short, but total catastrophe avoided by getting to OT

The Pens dig out of a two-goal hole in the third period, but lose in OT to the Islanders

Pregame

Seeking a spark, the Pens give some different players like Matthew Phillips, Valtteri Puustinen and P.O. Joseph some prime spots in the lineup tonight. Alex Nedeljkovic in the net.

First period

Good start for the home team and they parlay that into the opening goal 12:48 into the game. The top line puts some nice movement on display and break down the Islanders’ defensive structure. Rickard Rakell sets up Marcus Pettersson and the man they call the Dragon demonstrates a nice finish to shoot it right past Ilya Sorokin’s ear and into the net.

Pettersson then went to the penalty box but the Pens’ PK took care of it.

Shots went 13-12 NYI in the early going but Pittsburgh scored the only goal.

Second period

The Islanders bounce back after the break. Noted Penguin killer Brock Nelson receives a pass on the rush, avoids Pettersson’s swiping stick-check attempt and then lifts a backhand against the grain that fools Nedeljkovic. 1-1 game.

The Penguins got their first power play, and as has to often been the case, disaster soon followed. The team couldn’t score but maintained a lot of puck control. Until the penalty expired and Mat Barzal hopped out of the box and was sprung on a breakaway courtesy of a bad high bounce off the glass. Not the guy to fail to account for. 2-1 NYI.

The Islanders get another power play and score again just after it expires. Erik Karlsson gets in trouble trying to bank a pass off the back wall due to Simon Holmstrom pressure. The puck pinballs out in front of the net and Holmstrom gets to it before Karlsson or Nedeljkovic can. Whoops. 3-1.

Pittsburgh responds from the low point well, Lars Eller shoots from deep. Reilly Smith and a defender are posted up in front of the goal and the puck banks off the NYI player and in. 3-2 and the Pens still have life.

Islanders coach Patrick Roy (which will never not be weird) doesn’t like the play and challenges for a hand pass. It’s ticky tack, but hey, why not stop the game and see if the refs will agree. A close review shows the puck did hit Puustinen’s hand but then dinged off an Islanders’ stick, the refs see that and it’s a good goal.

Pittsburgh’s power play doesn’t score, but they don’t allow a breakaway goal this time right when it ends either, so that’s cool. Mike Reilly is going to the box at the end of the period.

Tale of two periods, NYI jumped out strong early and scored three goals. The Pens started to get their act together but still have work to do in the last 20.

Third period

The Pens are trying but can’t get much going and it looks bad when Ryan Graves turns the puck over in his own end and Mike Reilly beats Nedeljkovic short-side. 4-2.

With time ticking away, the Pens have to get something going quickly, and they do. Valtteri Puustinen finds the rebound of Kris Letang’s point shot and punches it in. 4-3 and the Pens have some hope.

The momentum keeps building on the next shift. Drew O’Connor gets the puck off the wall and throws the puck to the net for Pettersson cutting in. The puck bounces off the NYI player again and in. Counts the same. 4-4.

Patrick Roy takes his timeout and goes red in the face screaming at his team after they’ve blown a two-goal lead in a 56 second span. It works to stem the flow of the momentum in the game.

O’Connor nearly scores again in front during a scramble but Sorokin battles hard to keep the puck out.

All Pittsburgh in the last portion of the game to force OT.

Overtime

Surprisingly, no Crosby or Malkin for the start of extra time, it’s Eller and Reilly Smith as the forwards. Eller loses the draw and the Pens never touch the puck. NYI buries it 57 seconds. Adam Pelech gets the puck in his own end, a Penguin is changing and neither Sidney Crosby nor Letang step up to Pelech so he takes the space he’s given to rifle a shot by Nedeljkovic. 5-4, and that’s the game.

Some thoughts

• So much mixed bag hockey. Rakell makes a nice pass in the first period, can’t control the puck or make a zone entry on the power play later on. Pettersson scores a nice goal, gives it back getting walked by Nelson (but then redeems himself with the pressure late). Eller scores a goal, then loses the faceoff in OT that the team never recovers from. For so many players and the team it’s been one step forward, one step back so often this season.
• Even going down 3-1 or 4-2, it’s not like the Penguins quit or stopped playing hard. They’re just not particularly good enough at playing winning hockey and getting it all the way over the line.
• And as has happened so many times before, the power play deserves so much of the blame for that. Not scoring is one thing, handing the opposition goals is another. Putrid stuff yet again, can’t put it any other way.
• The Pens’ goaltending has saved their bacon repeatedly this year, so it feels bad to critique them too much, some slack has been earned, but analysis on tonight has to go there. Any good goalie is going to want back the Isles’ fourth and fifth goals. Those are the types of shots that Pittsburgh’s goaltending has been consistently stopping all season long, so it kinda “is what it is” to not be able to count on A+ efforts on every single game....But going back to that not “good enough at playing winning hockey” mentioned above — of course the Pens get a 28/33 (.848% save percentage) goaltending on a night where they actually end up scoring four goals. Just all the pieces can never add up quite in the right way this season, if it’s not one aspect costing them games, it’s the other.
• We’ll see if it’s just for the night or for good but the Matthews Phillips experiment is going to reach his conclusion sooner than later at this rate. Phillips didn’t play in the final 10:09 of the third. Just doesn’t look like he’s set up to receive passes, doesn’t make heady plays with the puck, isn’t in good shooting position. It’s bad enough he look like one of the mites on ice that snuck back into the game but has looked ill-suited to play at this level.
• On the other hand, it was encouraging to see some role players coming through. O’Connor might have been the best player on the ice in the third period on both teams. He was playing fast, aggressive and being dangerous with the puck. Puustinen scored his second goal of the season (both against the Isles, by the way. He should now try to start diversifying). But it was nice to see those types of supporting players actually contribute something for the rare time. The team has been begging for players like that to step up. In the third period, some finally did.
• Not a great ending, but the Pens avoided absolute disaster by at least gaining a point on the day in the third period rally. Here’s what it looks like via HockeyViz:

Not ideal to lose again, but the drop from falling in regulation would have been catastrophic at this point.

A rally that falls short, the Pens move to 0-1-1 on the important home-stand and really, really need to find themselves a positive result against lowly Montreal on Thursday.