New York Islanders host the Pittsburgh Penguins in their fifth meeting of the season
New York Islanders will be hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins in what will be the third game of Friday.
This will be the fifth out of the six meetings between the two sides.
Out of the four meeting that have taken place so far in the season, Pittsburgh Penguins have won three while the Islanders have won one which was the second game in shootout.
The most recent and last meeting between the two teams took place on the 2nd of February 2011 which saw the Pittsburgh Penguins keeping the clean sheet intact as they won 3-0 in the end. Though Captain Sidney Crosby isn’t in the team this time
but it is worth mentioning that New York Islanders in their only win against the Penguins in the season also ending Crosby’s 25 games consecutive scoring streak.
Though both teams are facing some serious roster problems due to some of their important players missing due to injuries but they have been able to tackle the situations. Penguins are missing some of the big names in their team in Evgeni Malkin (who will
miss the rest of the season) and Captain Sidney Crosby. Despite these set-backs, Penguins won their most recent game against the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in overtime through Jordan Staal overtime winning goal today.
On the other hand, New York Islanders are facing goal tending problems after trading their goal keeper. In their last game that they played against the Montreal Canadiens today won the game 4-3 after shootout. John Tavares was back on the score sheet after
a month long unproductive spell.
Rookie Michael Grabner also scored two goals. Mikko Koskinen was making his first appearance in goal for the New York Islanders and made couple of superb saves.
Koskinen was put into action this Tuesday due to the fact the fellow goal keeper and another rookie Kevin Poulin injured his knee that put an end to the season for him. He didn’t have the best of the starts as he allowed two goals in his first game facing
the first two shots. The game saw Toronto Maple Leafs winning 5-3 in end.
However, after putting in quite a lot of hard work in practice he made 37 saves in his next game against the Montreal Canadiens. "It was real tough on him at home with Kevin going down," Islanders interim coach Jack Capuano said. "He had a day and half
or two to think about his start tonight, and he just played it simple. He regrouped, he played square to the puck and he didn't try to do too much. He made some key saves for us."
New York Islanders have played 54 games so far out of which they have won 18 games in regulation time, 7 games in overtime and scored just 43 points. Pittsburgh Penguins played 56 games on the other hand and won 35 games in regulation time, 4 games in overtime
scoring 74 points.
There hasn’t been much from the Pittsburgh Penguins after the injuries to some of their key players. However, players like Tyler Kennedy and Pascal Dupuis have been able to take the responsibility and take their goals tally into double figures. Some new
additions like Brent Sterling have also been made in the squad who scored the opening goal in the last game.
"I came off the bench late on the change and I was just sneaking down the slot," Sterling said after scoring his third NHL goal and first as a Penguin. "When you get that much time in the slot, you're hoping you can bury it."
Pittsburgh Penguins have a big chance of winning the game despite the injury problems with the Islanders giving them a tough time.
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