Pregame

The Penguins happily welcome the return of Bryan Rust from his suspension and get Stuart Skinner in net.

First period

Good start for the Penguins, they get an early power play after Scott Mayfield hooks Egor Chinakhov. Smart penalty to take being as Chinakhov was in a similar position to his goal last night, catching a centering feed from Tommy Novak this time and about ready to fire before getting impeded. The Islanders kill the penalty, though Sidney Crosby almost has a highlight reel goal skating by Matthew Schaefer and getting a nice shot away.

Game goes back and forth for a little, the big guys come through. Justin Brazeau dishes to Anthony Mantha who uses his reach to manipulate just how he can lift the puck to the far-side of Ilya Sorokin. 1-0 Pittsburgh.

The period turns sour for the Penguins as the Islanders score two goals in the final 1:19.

The first goal is mostly bad luck compounding, Skinner leaves a rebound off his glove, then Ryan Shea can’t clear the puck out of danger. The opposite happens with it ricocheting off bodies and right back to Bo Horvat. Horvat reaches to it before Shea can recover. 1-1.

As the period nears its end, a delayed penalty call is coming up on Pittsburgh. It never gets called, a long stretch of puck control tires the Pens out and Schaefer is there to hammer one from deep. 2-1 NYI.

Not a good last minute or so for the visitors to see their lead turn into a 2-1 deficit after 20.

Second period

The Pens find a goal to tie the game. Slick setup from Tommy Novak coming from behind the net. Who else but Egor Chinakhov is there to somehow get just far enough away from the reach of Ryan Pulock and still stay in a prime scoring position. Then again, with his release speed and shot velo, almost everywhere in a prime scoring position. 2-2.

Rust gets back on the scoreboard in his first game back from suspension, sneaking a bad angle shot off Sorokin and in. Fittingly the sequence starts with Rust out-working Schaefer to keep a puck alive in the zone, a few seconds later it comes back around behind the net and Rust puts some mustard on a Crosby-esque bank shot that leaks through. 3-2.

Chinakhov and Novak nearly combine for another highlight-reel goal but toss around one too many passes (gahh). Chinakhov does draw his second power play of the game, again for getting impeded as he slipped behind the defense and cut into the net. The power play doesn’t score and the second period wraps up.

Great response period for the Pens, who outshoot NYI 12-5 in the second period and outscore them 2-1 to regain the lead.

Third period

More good work in the early going, it takes until the 13:59 to go mark before NYI gets their first shot of the period, an outside shot that Skinner easily corrals. By then the Pens had four shots, including Malkin nearly scoring from just in front of the net.

Which makes it more frustrating when the Islanders find a tying goal with 11:23 to go. Crosby and Ilya Solovyov bump into each other in front of Skinner with no Islanders around them. Mat Barzal shoots from long range, there’s no one in the lanes to block it. Not sure if that puck deflected off Rakell or Solovyov there, it hits the back of the net. 3-3 game.

The crowd comes to life with something to cheer about and the Pens quiet them with a big answer. Brett Kulak does well to win a puck off the wall and quickly fire it to the net. Justin Brazeau makes a brilliant deflection back across where Sorokin thinks it’s going. 4-3 game, Pittsburgh back in front with 9:20 to go.

Crosby gets the gate for a tripping call and the NYI power play gets a crack at it, they’re unable to generate a shot.

Crosby gets high-sticked, no penalty since it was Karlsson’s stick. The Islanders get back to work, Barzal’s pass clicks off Malkin and right to Pulock. Pulock measures up and beats Skinner cleanly. 4-4 game, 4:36 to go.

The Pens get a close call for a goal, which would have been controversial on Ben Kindel’s part by sticking his leg into Sorokin as Brazeau followed up on a chance.

Pittsburgh takes their timeout, the plans they draw up don’t work out.

Frantic third period leads to extra time.

Overtime

Crosby-Rust-Karlsson start things out, Crosby wins the draw and the Pens get the all-important possession though only for the first 20 seconds. The Pens get it back but Kulak mis-hits the puck and Horvat goes the other way on a breakaway. He makes no mistakes beating Skinner and ending the game.

Some thoughts

• It seemed like the Islanders were either lazy/fatigued in their gap control or perhaps surprised by how fast the Penguins looked when they allowed them to slip behind them and then play catch up on rushes up the wall. These teams haven’t seen each other since the early days of the season. These Pens with players like Chinakhov, Novak and even the deceptively fast Mantha aren’t really the Pittsburgh teams of the past few years. Not that these Penguins are excessively fast across the board but it probably caught their opponent off guard that this team isn’t quite as familiar as they might have remembered.
• Speaking of growth and changes from the beginning of the season, how amazing is that Schaefer huh? Hard to believe the last time he played the Penguins it was his first night in the NHL. He’s had plenty of highlight moments since then, just seeing how comfortable and much more in control he is out there from where he was in Game 1 in October to now is really remarkable. Schaefer’s already one of the best and most dynamic players out there, scary to think what he’s going to look like in another 1-2-3 years as he gains even more experience.
• There’s an old trope that when the second line wingers get too productive they soon find themselves playing on Crosby’s line. That turned out to finally benefit Evgeni Malkin now that *he* has become the productive second line winger. The Pens tried a Chinakhov-Crosby-Malkin line for an o-zone draw. They got too cute with the passing and then someone took a penalty (negated by the Schaefer goal). Humble beginnings, maybe it’ll work out next time.
• Sorokin’s been arguably the best goalie in the league by far this season, which might make it all the more surprising he just looked average tonight. Everyone has their off days (see also, the Penguins last night), how she goes sometimes. Probably aren’t too many times when he’s just straight up getting beat (Mantha, Chinakhov shots) or giving up a weak, leaky goal from no angle that he definitely would want back (Rust). It wasn’t like it was bad luck on bounces or instances where traffic was making his life difficult, just maybe a “C” type of game for what’s been an A goalie.
• Then again, Skinner had a few he would want back too. That fourth goal, by Pulock, is one that has to be a save. The earlier goal in the third period was a team breakdown, it was also the type of stop Skinner was making when he was in a groove a few weeks ago. Now, not so much. Olympic break suddenly is coming at a good time for him.
• Chinakhov has scored a goal in five of his last seven games. Sometimes you see a guy pop a high shooting percentage or maybe string a couple of two-goal games together or hit an empty net or two and can see the inevitable fall coming a mile away. In this case it looks like Chinakhov is still getting started, he’s just scratching the surface of what he could lie ahead. If he (and, to be fair, his linemates) didn’t over-pass the puck so much, there would be even more. They’re generating so many potential looks and his shot is so good that it’s going to find success as long as they keep it going.
• The Bob Grove stat of the night is a good one: Pittsburgh recorded their 15,000th regular season goal tonight as a franchise. Only the Original 6 teams have more.
• Getting one point on the road is something, based on the first 40 minutes it was a night where the Pens were the better team for the majority of the night, so not getting that second point hurts in that regard.

This has been a crazy stretch of games (five in eight nights) and it’s nearly over. One more to go on Thursday night in Buffalo and then the NHL takes an Olympic pause.