New York Islanders rally to dominate Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 -NHL Update
New York knows that they are not making the playoffs this time around but tried some new techniques, which surprisingly worked as the Islanders dominated a team like Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3, on Tuesday night, March 27, 2012, at the sold-out CONSOL Energy
Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Islanders are playing miraculously well these past few games as they now have four wins in the previous five. They took advantage of the fact that Pittsburgh became frustrated when they were down by two and capitalised on the added aggression by fuelling
the fire with more goals.
"We got what we deserved tonight," Pittsburgh captain and centre, Sidney Crosby, said.
Had New York does this a while back in the season, being a part of the playoff race would not be as hard as it looks now with only six games remaining on their 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season schedule.
"We've been playing well lately but we knew this game and the next game is a going to be a good test to see where the team is standing and how good we are because Pittsburgh is a good hockey team," Frans Nielsen said.
Frans Nielsen inaugurated the scoring with his 16th of the year followed by an extension shot from Michael Grabner at 19:55 of the first, taking a strong 2-0 lead entering the next 20-minute period.
Tyler Kennedy and James Neal brought Pittsburgh right back up and levelled the game in the opening four minutes of the second but another shooting spree from New York’s side decided the game.
Kyle Okposo made the tie-breaker while David Ullstrom added the power play goal with Steve Sullivan out and Nielsen made the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining.
James Neal grabbed his second goal of the night with less than minutes to go in the final period of regulation but Pittsburgh failed to add anymore after that.
"When you have a record like that in a team's building, sometimes you just need to break the goose egg and come out with a victory." said Islanders centre, Josh Bailey, who contributed with three assists. "Hopefully winning there tonight can kind of crack
that."
Islanders have the next at home again against Penguins, a match certainly highly anticipated as to seeing who will emerge victorious this time.
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