In Uniondale, the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied back from 0-2 and 2-3 holes to down the New York Islanders, 4-3, in extra time on Saturday night.
Kris Letang scored his goal of the game with 26 seconds left in the extra session for the game-winner.
“They’re all big, those games against this team,” Letang said. “They’re going to be a team we’re going to battle until the end of the season to get in the playoffs. … We know they’re a really good defensive team and they wait for mistakes, so we try to limit those and try to find success that way.”
Tristan Jarry made 24 saves to get the win.
“At the end of the day, our players are getting the job done,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said.
After trailing 2-3, the Pens’ Jared McCann got the game even at 3-3, with a goal just 18 seconds into the third period.
“We rely on [Letang] so much and in so many different aspects of the game,” Sullivan said. “He plays the most minutes on our team by nature of being our No. 1 defenseman. … He’s just such an important player for us. He has the ability to be an impact guy.”
Josh Bailey had a goal for the Isles, his first in 10 games, the goal gave the Isles a 3-2 lead in the middle frame.
“It felt good; obviously, it had been a little while since I shot one in the net,” Bailey said. “It felt good. It was a good all-around play. Just found a way to get one point, a little disappointed in the result. But the beauty of this league is we’re going to get a chance coming real quick at 5 o’clock tomorrow night to redeem ourselves.”
Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal staked the islanders to a 2-0 lead.
“We played a pretty good game,” Nelson said. “Start of the second and start of the third, they get three goals in the first couple minutes of each period. … [We] would like to come away with two points.”
The Islanders dropped to 10-6-2.
“I don’t know if there’s frustration; we’ve just got to keep going,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “You never know how the game turns. We had opportunities in the second to pull away a little bit and we weren’t able to, so you just stick with it. You just collect points and at the end of the day, you hope you have enough. That’s plain and simple. We can’t dwell on it too much.”
Sidney Crosby also scored for Pittsburgh.
Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves in the loss.
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