Islanders take Game 1 from Pens in OT

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In Pittsburgh, Kyle Palmieri‘s second goal of the game came at 16:30 of overtime on Sunday to give the New York Islanders a 4-3 win over the Penguins and a 1-0 series

Kyle Palmieri scored the OT game-winner for the New York Islanders

lead.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time,” Palmieri said. “The opportunity to be in the playoffs is something I don’t take for granted. Obviously, it’s hard to get here. We came on the road on a mission. We were able to go out there tonight and find a way to get a win.”

Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves for the Isles in place of Semyon Varlamov who “had a thing”.

“We had to make a decision, really, last night,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “[Varlamov] skated both days. He’s going to practice tomorrow as well. We just thought, long term, that’s one thing that we think we have is two capable goalies. If we want to have any success, we’re going to need both of them. So we said, ‘You know what? Let’s sort of do what’s right. Let’s not risk anything here. Let’s be cautious. We’ll give him another day of practice, and then he’ll be 100 percent.'”

Palmieri opened the scoring in the game to give New York a 1-0 lead.

 

Frederick Gaudreau replied for the Pens to tie the game, 1-1.

Sidney Crosby and Kasperi Kapanen added single markers for Pittsburgh.

“I thought that we had some chances to build on our lead when it was 2-1, and we didn’t,” Crosby said. “They were able to hang around. Would’ve been great to hold on to the lead, but a team’s going to push. They did, and we didn’t get that big one in overtime.”

Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau  also scored for the Islanders in regulation.

“We were starting to get the momentum going,” Trotz said. “I felt pretty good getting through [the second] period only down 2-1. I felt that if we continue with that, I know we’re a pretty good third-period team, that we can get this tied up.”

Tristan Jarry made 37 saves in the loss.

“I thought Tristan made some big saves throughout the course of the game to keep the game where it was at,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “There were some good saves at both ends of the rink. I just think we have to do a better job as a group.”

Evgeni Malkin did not ice for the Pens.