Islanders beat Pittsburgh in a shootout
New York Islanders' Ryan Strome celebrates his goal with Anders Lee and Josh Bailey during the first period of an NHL game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. Credit: AP / Gene J.Puskar
Penguins coach Mike Johnston said he was viewing the home-and-home against the Islanders that began Friday night at the Consol Energy Center "like a playoff series." If so, the Islanders enjoy an early advantage.
Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo scored in the shootout as the Islanders beat the Penguins, 5-4.
After the Penguins' Evgeni Malkin and the Islanders' John Tavares were stopped in the first round of the shootout, Sidney Crosby scored against Chad Johnson. Nielsen, going next, tied it.
After Johnson stopped Brandon Sutter, Okposo beat Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Islanders the gritty victory.
"Game 2" is Saturday night at the Coliseum.
"It's a big game for us," Johnson said before the home-and-home opener. "For them, too."
Said Johnston: "In my mind, you treat it like a playoff series. It gives you a chance during the year to simulate playoff action. You play a game and now you react to how you play and what you need to do the next day."
The Penguins rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to tie the score at 4 with 7:00 to go in regulation when Patric Hornqvist beat Johnson off a feed from Malkin.
The Islanders, who trail first-place Pittsburgh by two points in the Metropolitan Division, scored three goals in a 1:35 span of the first period after the Penguins took a 1-0 lead 1:13 into the contest on Sutter's redirection.
The Islanders responded with goals from Matt Martin, Nikolay Kulemin and Ryan Strome.
Martin came off the bench on a line change, skated across the ice, picked up the puck and beat Fleury at 8:18 to tie it. It was his first goal of the season.
Just 29 seconds later, Kulemin turned a takeaway into a 2-1 Islanders lead. Finally, Strome scored on a deflection of Thomas Hickey's shot at 9:53.
Pittsburgh's Blake Comeau made it 3-2 when his centering feed was deflected in with 3:26 left in the period.
The teams traded goals in the second period. Nick Leddy scored at 5:42 to give the Islanders a two-goal advantage, but it went back to a one-goal game when Pittsburgh's Nick Spaling knocked a rebound past Johnson at 8:50.
"It's not the score you want to see," said Islanders coach Jack Capuano, who was displeased with his team's effort in the second period. "Especially from our end, the last thing we want to do is get in a shootout with these guys. They're a pretty good hockey club. So we've just got to be better."
Still, Capuano was happy with the two points.
"To me that's the sign of a good team," he said. "When you don't play well and you don't stay focused and you don't do the intangibles that it takes, you still won the hockey game. They're a good team in there. They've just got to believe in playing the right way."
Notes & quotes: Michael Grabner, who is recovering from hernia surgery, skated with the team in the morning but was not activated . . . Johnny Boychuk played after missing part of Tuesday's game with a lower body injury . . . The Islanders are 7-3 in their last 10 games.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
More Islanders
