Islanders plan to use hostile Pittsburgh crowd to their advantage in Game 5

The day after they tied their first-round playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins at two games apiece, the Islanders couldn’t say enough about the support they got from the 6,800 fans who cheered them on at Nassau Coliseum for the last two games.

Now, as the series shifts back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Monday, the Islanders won’t have that supportive crowd behind them. Instead, they’ll have 9,000-odd fans at PPG Paints Arena cheering everything their opponents do.

So is there a way for Barry Trotz’s team to use a hostile crowd to their advantage?

"Oh, yeah, absolutely,’’ he said with a grin Sunday after the Islanders practiced on Long Island before departing for Pittsburgh. "Us against the world, man.’’

"Yeah, that’s definitely a challenge that you have to overcome,’’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau said of playing Game 5 on the road. "We’ll try to focus on what we have to do in our game and build our game.

"Going in there [for Games 1 and 2], with fans, it was the first experience for us in a playoff game with fans,’’ Pageau said. "It felt like I’d like a full house, just because we were so used to playing without any fans. So it’s pretty cool. But I think we’ve got to take that energy and almost put it on our side.’’

The Islanders won Game 1 of the series in Pittsburgh in overtime before 4,672 at PPG Paints Arena, roughly 25% of the building’s capacity. The state of Pennsylvania allowed capacity in the arena to be bumped up to 50% for Game 2, and 9,344 attended that game, which the Islanders lost, 2-1.

The Islanders are likely to start rookie goaltender Ilya Sorokin in Game 5 rather than Semyon Varlamov. Varlamov, who was held out of Game 1 of the series because of a lower-body injury, started Game 2 and gave up an awful goal to Bryan Rust to put the Islanders in a 1-0 hole 3:22 into the game. The deficit became 2-0 later in the first period, and though Varlamov made 43 saves in the game, the Islanders never could come all the way back.

In his post-practice Zoom conference on Sunday, no one asked Trotz which goalie he intended to start because he almost certainly would not have announced that decision. But Sorokin, who was in the net for Saturday’s 4-1 victory in Game 4, is 2-0 in the series and Varlamov is 0-2.

The Penguins hope to get something out of Sidney Crosby, who has one goal in the series.

The Islanders have matched several different lines against Crosby’s and somehow have managed to hold his entire line (with Rust and Jake Guentzel) scoreless the last two games. But Trotz is wary of the possibility that Crosby and Co. could wake up at some point.

"He’s had one goal, but he’s dangerous,’’ Trotz said. "He’s an elite player who plays an elite game night in and night out. We just hope to contain him, the top players like him, I mean.

"I have so much respect for Sid as a player and a person. You know this, I think, is a fifth time we’ve been going against Sid in the playoffs for myself and he’s an exceptional player and a great example of what an NHL player is in this league. And he’s a gold standard. He’s carried this league, with him and Ovi [Alex Ovechkin], I think, when the league really needed it.’’

Notes & quotes: Trotz said everyone who played in Game 4 practiced Sunday and that there were no new injury concerns . . . The Islanders are 5-6 in Game 5s when a best-of-seven series is tied 2-2 . . . Monday is the 41st anniversary of Bobby Nystrom’s overtime goal that delivered the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.