Islanders rally to beat Penguins on Zach Parise's late goal
Brock Nelson of the Islanders celebrates his first goal of the third period against the Penguins with his teammates at UBS Arena on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Islanders were sluggish and seemingly uninterested, their defensive zone play again leaky as they twice fell two goals behind the Penguins in a game they absolutely had to win.
The UBS Arena crowd was booing. Where was the urgency? Where was the desperation?
Coach Lane Lambert called a timeout just 5:35 into the second period to find out. There was some anger in his voice.
“There were moments we weren’t at our best,” Anders Lee said.
But the Islanders, facing a team just returning from a West Coast trip, eventually played as if their playoff hopes were on the line and rallied for a 5-4 win on Friday night, snapping a three-game losing streak.
They got 40 saves from Ilya Sorokin and two goals apiece from Brock Nelson and Lee — including his golf-like tee shot off Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith — as Lambert relied heavily on his top two lines.
Zach Parise, playing in his 1,200th game, scored the winner at 17:17 of the third period, getting to the crease to knock in Nelson’s feed.
“It feels good,” Lambert said. “We weren’t at our best at the start. We had some moments in the second period where we were hemmed in. Once you get tired, you’re kind of in desperation mode. To get through that and mount a comeback is really terrific for our guys.”
The Islanders (28-23-7) leapfrogged over the Capitals and Panthers for the Eastern Conference’s second-wild card spot by one point, though the Capitals have played one fewer game. They will open a two-game road trip late Saturday afternoon against the NHL-leading Bruins before a return match against the Penguins on Monday night.
DeSmith made 23 saves for the Penguins (27-18-9), who hold the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot. They are even with the Islanders in points but have played four fewer games.
“I don’t think anybody was happy with the way we came out in the first. We didn’t generate much offensively,” said Nelson, who extended his career-high point streak to 12 games, bringing the Islanders within 3-2 on a wraparound at 14:25 of the second period and tying it at 4-4 with a power-play one-timer from the right at 5:01 of the third period.
“We turned it a bit and stuck with it and had the belief that we were going to get the job done,’’ Nelson said. “A couple of huge moments: Leesy getting that late goal in the second and the power-play goal was huge.”
Lee’s second goal — he deflected Mathew Barzal’s initial shot with 27.1 seconds left in the second period — brought the Islanders within 4-3. Lambert called it a “turning point.”
“It does change a little bit of the momentum,” said Lee, who responded well after being elevated to top-line center Bo Horvat’s left wing. “It changes a little bit of the task at hand. We’ve all seen how it is coming back from [down] two, especially against a good team.”
Lee had snapped a five-game goal drought with his Happy Gilmore moment, a backhanded chip with the puck resting between the top of DeSmith’s pads and his stomach as the goalie lay on his back. That tied the score at 1-1 at 13:56 of the first period.
But the Penguins took a 3-1 lead on goals one minute, 42 seconds apart by Rickard Rakell and Jason Zucker, prompting Lambert to use his timeout.
The Penguins regained a two-goal edge on Rakell’s second goal at 18:57 of the second period off Sidney Crosby’s deft feed from the paint.
Crosby, with his 41st goal in 80 career games against the Islanders, made it 1-0 at 12:00 of the first period.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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