Chris Kunitz helps the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Islanders 4-3 – NHL Recap
Chris Kunitz notched the game-winning goal in the shoot-out and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 35 shots to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins past the New York Islanders 4-3, at Nassau Coliseum on Friday night.
Zbynek Michalek and Mark Letestu each also lit the lamp while Michael Rupp had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh, which went 4-1-1 against the Islanders. The Penguins have won three consecutive and seven of their previous nine contests.
Penguins’ Head Coach Dan Bylsma was pleased with the adjustments his team made to get the victory. He said after the game, "There are things about the game that I didn't like, but our team found a way to win.”
With this victory, the Penguins have 104 points and moved into a tie with the Philadelphia Flyers for the first-place in the Atlantic Division. Both the teams have only one game left.
Blake Comeau scored twice while Travis Hamonic also tallied a goal for the Islanders, who were long removed from the National Hockey League play-off race, but struggled to get those victories. Goal-tender Al Montoya surrendered all four goals on 29 shots
in the defeat.
"The fans got their money's worth tonight," New York Head Coach Jack Capuano said.
Penguins got the scoring started with Rupp’s lone goal of the first period. The goal came in the eighth minute of the first period when Rupp put a backhander past Montoya for his eighth goal of the season.
The Penguins took a 2-0 lead on a power-play in the 12th minute of the middle period. The game was set up by Kris Letang, who sent a pass to the left point where defenseman Michalek fired a one-timer past Montoya. It was Michalek’s second goal and third
point in three contests.
The Islanders cut their deficit in half with less than five minutes to play in the second period when Comeau whacked in a rebound off a shot from Matt Moulson to make it 2-1.
“Moulson was where he had to be, in front,” Comeau said. “He got the rebound and tried to put it in. I got the rebound and put it in.”
New York tied the game at 2-2 on a power-play in the ninth minute of the final period. The goal happened when Michael Grabner made a feed to Comeau, who put the puck into an empty net for his second point of the game.
The Penguins regained a one goal lead, 3-2, with less than eight minutes to play in the third period when Rupp centred a pass to Letestu, who banged the puck home.
Islander appeared to even the game with less than two minutes remaining in the final period when Moulson chipped in his own rebound, but the goal was disallowed because the Islanders forward John Tavares was in the crease.
After the Islanders benched Al Montoya for an extra attacker, Hamonic equalised the game at 3-3 with less than a minute to play in regulation. It happened as Hamonic fired a slap shot from the left point that beat Fleury.
Chris Kunitz capped the scoring with a third-round goal of the shoot-out when he wristed a shot past Montoya. Fleury turned aside all three New York shooters in the shoot-out to preserve the victory.
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