In Uniondale, the seconds did not tick away nearly quickly enough for the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Evgeni Malkin scored with 16 seconds left on that slowly turning clock and tied the game for the Pittsburgh Penguins at 3-3.
That goal forced extra time which solved nothing before the Pens scratched out a 4-3 win on penalties.
“They’re a good team defensively,” Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang said. “They converge really well at their net and block a lot of shots. ‘Geno’ did a good job of getting open, and it’s just a great shot. That’s what he does well. And we had great traffic in front, so great play all around.”
Casey DeSmith made 26 saves for the win.
“It’s a huge goal for us,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think we needed a win for our confidence. I love how our guys dug in down the stretch. … [Letang] makes a good pass. He puts it right in Geno’s wheelhouse, and obviously he can really shoot the puck.”
Pittsburgh improved to 6-5-1.
The Isles got goals from Casey Cizikas, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Mathew Barzal.
“There’s no reconciliation, you collect points in this league,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said. “Every night if you can get a point, it’s huge. We’ll take points every night. We’ll be in a good shape, I guarantee you that. You look at a weekly segment, if you can get four or five points a week, you’re in pretty good shape. We’re doing that.
“It’s not about anything else but collecting points. At the end of the day you look up and see how many points you have, and if you’ve got enough to get in (the Stanley Cup Playoffs), then you’re in and you’ve got a shot.”
Zach Aston-Reese and Bryan Rust also scored in regulation for Pittsburgh.
“There was just hesitation [before the surgery],” Aston-Reese said. “I know going into battles, whether it was a battle or a fight or just kind of cross-checking around, there was a chance of my shoulder potentially slipping out. So to not have to worry about that anymore and have that hesitation out of my game is huge for me, especially the way I play.”
“I might have blacked out there for a second,” Cizikas said. “It was just a battle for the puck and I was able to make a move somehow and put it in the back of the net.”
Sidney Crosby had the only strike in the skills competition.
Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves in the loss.
“We played a pretty good game tonight,” the Islanders’ Anders Lee said. “We played a good hockey team. It’s tight, it’s tied up at the end and we were just short on the extra one.
“But any night you can get obviously one [point], you can build off of that and you can add it to the point total in all those things. It’s definitely better than zero. We’ve obviously had that stretch a week ago or so, so it’s nice to be on this side of it for now.”
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