Zach Parise, playing in his 1,200th career game, scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:43 left Friday night for the host New York Islanders, who vaulted into an Eastern Conference wild-card spot by overcoming a pair of two-goal deficits to edge the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 in Elmont, N.Y.
Brock Nelson’s pass into the crease clipped off the stick of Bryan Rust and Parise got a piece of it before the puck fluttered past Casey DeSmith to give the Islanders their first lead.
Nelson and Anders Lee each had two goals for the Islanders, who moved into a tie with the Penguins for the wild-card spots. Both teams have 63 points, one point ahead of the idle Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers. Pittsburgh has four games in hand on New York.
Islanders Goalie Ilya Sorokin made 40 saves.
Rickard Rakell scored twice while Sidney Crosby and Jason Zucker had a goal apiece for the Penguins. DeSmith recorded 23 saves.
The teams traded unusual goals within a 1:56 span in the back end of the first period.
The Penguins took a short-lived lead when Sorokin slowed but didn’t fully stop a shot by Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Crosby snuck behind Noah Dobson and shoved the puck across the goal line with eight minutes left in the period.
The Islanders tied the score after Mathew Barzal picked off a clearing pass by Marcus Pettersson and dished to Lee, whose shot landed in DeSmith’s midsection. The puck remained there with DeSmith laying on the ice until Lee backhanded it into the net.
The Penguins took a two-goal lead by scoring twice in less than two minutes early in the second. Rakell flicked the puck over Sorokin’s stick shoulder at the 3:53 mark and Zucker doubled the lead 1:42 later when he redirected a shot by Joseph.
Nelson pulled the Islanders within a goal by scoring on a wraparound with 5:35 left.
The Penguins took another two-goal lead with 1:03 remaining in the second period. A shot by Pettersson glanced off Rakell, whose attempted shot clipped off Adam Pelech. The puck skittered into the crease and off the skate of Bo Horvat before Crosby reached around Horvat with one hand and backhanded a pass to Rakell, who beat Sorokin.
Lee began the Islanders’ next comeback by redirecting a shot by Barzal with 27.1 seconds left in the second. Joseph was whistled for tripping Barzal at 4:20 of the third to set up the power play that yielded Nelson’s second goal, a sizzling slap shot from the right faceoff circle 41 seconds later.
–Field Level Media
