In Elmont, the New York Islanders rallied with two goals in the third period to down the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4, on Friday night,.
Zach Parise scored the game-winner at 17:17 of the period to complete the comeback.
“It couldn’t have been a more fitting end,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said.
Brock Nelson scored five minutes into the stanza to tie the 4-4.
“We all look at the standings. We knew the importance going into the game,” Parise said. “We have teams that are climbing behind us with games in hand and we have teams we’re trying to catch. There’s just not a lot of room for error for us right now.”
Ilya Sorokin made 40 saves in the New York win.
The Islanders moved to 28-23-7.
“It’s been a while since we had a couple-goal deficits where we came back and won,” Nelson said. “Taking advantage of key moments, power play being one of them. That was huge.”
The victory pushed the Isles into the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, ahead of the idle Washington Capitals.
Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and the Islanders’ Anders Lee exchanged first period goals for a 1-1 tie coming out of the opening period.
Lee for a double in the New York win.
In the middle frame, the Pens grabbed a 3-1 lead on goals from Rickard Rakell, his first of two on the night, and Jason Zucker, the goals came 1:42 apart.
The Penguins dropped to 27-18-9.
“Obviously the results are important, especially at this time of year,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “So, we want to get results. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get it because I thought we played well enough to, but that’s hockey. We have to regroup. We have an important one tomorrow night. We have to get ready.”
Nelson scored his first of the night to get the Isles back within one at 3-2.
“I thought for the majority of the night the team was terrific,” Sullivan said. “We had a really good first period and we had a really strong second period. They got a couple opportunistic goals in the second period [that] gave them life. I thought we had tons of energy. I felt we were playing with the right intentions out there.”
Rakell scored his double at 18:57 to push the lead back to two goals, 4-2, but Lee potted his second goal of the night to trim the advantage to 4-3 headed to the third period.
“We definitely had our chances,” Rakell said.
Casey DeSmith made 23 saves in the Pittsburgh loss.
“That’s a first,” DeSmith said of Lee’s unconventional goal. “I thought it was under me. I guess it was on top of me.”
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