PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pierre Engvall scored the tiebreaking goal in New York’s four-goal third period, and the Islanders rallied to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Tuesday night.

Kyle Palmieri had a goal and two assists, Noah Dobson added a goal and an assist, and Simon Holmstrom also scored to help New York get four goals in the third after trailing 2-0 for the second straight game. Ilya Sorokin finished with 20 saves.

Sidney Crosby scored his 24th goal, Joona Koppanen got the first of his NHL career and Tristan Jarry stopped 34 shots for the Penguins, who snapped a four-game win streak.

Palmieri got the Islanders on the scoreboard 17 seconds into the third as he chased down the puck after it got away from Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, skated in on Jarry and fired a shot in off the right post.

Dobson tied it as he knocked in the rebound of Bo Horvat’s driving attempt at 5:34. Engvall put the Islanders ahead as he beat Jarry with 6:52 left, and Holmstrom added an empty-netter with 1:32 remaining to seal the win.

Koppanen gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead as he deflected Vladislav Kolyachonok’s shot from the point past Sorokin 4:40 into the game.

Crosby doubled the lead with 15 seconds left in the first as he knocked in the rebound of a shot by Conor Timmins.

Takeaways

Islanders: New York won for the second time in five games and is three points out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Penguins: Pittsburgh was trying for its first five-game win streak since Nov. 4-14, 2023. Instead, the Penguins fell to 5-4-1 in their last 10 games.

Key moment

The Penguins had several chances to score late in the final minute of the first period. Sorokin made saves on shots by Rickard Rakell and Timmins before Crosby scored to give him 1,670 points for his career. He moved past Wayne Gretzky for the fourth-most points with one franchise in NHL history.

Key stat

The Islanders improved to 5-21-2 when trailing after two periods, and the Penguins fell to 18-2-2 when leading after two.

Up next

Islanders host Montreal on Thursday night.

Penguins host Columbus on Friday.

Highlights

Kyle Palmieri starts the third period with a goal ant cuts it to 1! pic.twitter.com/mNCqbbuWOj

— Islanders Videos (@SNY_Islanders) March 19, 2025

Noah Dobson equalizes! pic.twitter.com/6r5RomIGqu

— Islanders Videos (@SNY_Islanders) March 19, 2025

PIERRE ENGVALL!

The Islanders have come back after being down 2-0! pic.twitter.com/ZJasxv3P1W

— Islanders Videos (@SNY_Islanders) March 19, 2025

The Rangers, in a scrap for a final spot in the playoffs, failed to show much of a fight at all in a 2-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Igor Shesterkin, again, was tasked with keeping the game close and, unfortunately, was the lone Ranger who showed any bit of interest in continuing the season past the regular season. The goaltender made a series of big saves, including several on Jonathan Huberdeau, after errors by Blueshirts in front of him. He finished with 33 saves on the night, but a pair of first-period goals were enough to sink the Rangers (72 points, 33-30-6) to a second straight defeat.

The Rangers had no forecheck to speak of (generating just one takeaway), committed a multitude of giveaways (20), and managed just 13 shots on goal, one off their season low. And it proved doubly costly as the Canadiens (73 points, 33-27-7) beat the Ottawa Senators to jump ahead of New York for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Montreal also has a game in hand.

Here are the takeaways…

- J.T. Miller, always looking to force the action since he arrived for his second stint with the Rangers, forced a save from Flames goaltender Dan Vladar just 24 seconds into the game. Artemi Panarin did him one better scoring on a snap shot from the left side 1:13 into the contest for his 30th of the season.

Calgary, playing on the second night of road back-to-back that meant they didn’t arrive in New York until the early hours of Tuesday morning, became the aggressors and penned in the home team, who constantly gave away the puck and looked stuck in neutral. The Flames had all the intensity of a team on the bubble of a playoff spot that Rangers lacked.

Over the ensuing 38:47, the Blueshirts managed just six shots on the Flames net. The visitors – coming off a 6-3 drubbing in Toronto and the lowest-scoring team in the NHL – fired 24 shots on Shersterken in net, beating him twice in the first and holding on for a 2-1 lead entering the third period.

Nazem Kadri leveled the score, slipping it through Shersterken’s legs, after New York failed to clear the puck on two rebounds in front of the net just past the midway point of the first. With just over two minutes to play, Matt Rempe’s left elbow caught Jake Beam's head in front of the Rangers bench. The Flames needed just 17 seconds of the man advantage to find an open Matt Coronato in the center of the ice for the go-ahead score.

- Rangers forwards didn’t manage a single shot on goal in the goalless second period and had not put one in on Vladar since the Panarin score.

The drought continued deep into the third, until Chris Kreider was fed the puck in the center of the ice and had a golden chance but despite the lack of action, Vladar was up to the task. The Kreider slapshot was the Blueshirts’ third of the period and first by a forward in 46:33 of action.

The Blueshirts generated a few chances as their intensity increased, but failed to generate any high-quality opportunities, even in the game's final two minutes when the net was left empty.

Only Kreider (2), Panarin (2), Miller (1), and Mika Zibanejad (1) tallied shots among the 12 forwards in blue. The defenseman generated seven.

- The Flames – who kill just 71 percent of penalties on the road, the lowest rate in hockey – allowed the Maple Leafs to score on all three of their attempts on Monday. Less than 24 hours later, they killed the only Rangers power-play of the night with ease.

The Rangers entered the game stuffing through a 1-for-21 stretch when up a man in their last eight games. They heard boos from the crowd at MSG sixty seconds into their first chance on the power play in the second period. The second half of the penalty was equally as uneventful as the Blueshirts couldn’t even gain the zone to set up the opportunity to create a chance.

It was Calgary who got a golden chance to make it 3-1 as Martin Pospisil hoped out of the box and had a chance on a breakaway against Igor Shesterkin, but the netminder was able to put off the attacker who put the puck over the crossbar.

- Panarin extended his season-high point streak to 10 games with his first-period marker giving him seven goals and seven assists during his hot run of form. He now has 23 points in his last 30 games.

Highlight

Artemi Panarin opens the scoring early with his 30th of the season! pic.twitter.com/2WteJMX7Fu

— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) March 18, 2025

What's next

The Rangers, after dropping the first two games of a four-game homestand, host the Maple Leafs on Thursday for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop.

1. When do you figure the Rempe-Rippers will agree that Matt is a legitimate big-leaguer? (Answer: Only after he wins the Hart Trophy?),

2. Name the 2025 Stanley Cup-winner? (Answer: Winnipeg, or Florida, or Edmonton or Washington or Colorado or Dallas, but never Toronto!)

3. Who's better as the Best NHL Player – McDavid or Draisaitl? (Answer: Neither. Sorry, you have to win The Stanley Cup. Ovechkin!)

4. What's wrong with NHL officiating? (Answer: Nothing. The only thing that can keep up with hockey's supersonic speed is instantreplay.)

5. Who's the best fighter in the NHL? (Answer: If you ask Matt Rempe he'll tell you that it's Mathieu Olivier of Columbus. So will The Maven.)

6. Why can't the Maple Leafs ever win The Stanley Cup?  (Answer: There is such a thing as "tradition!")

7. Will John Tavares return to Toronto next season? (Answer: There is such a thing as "Pyjamas!")

8. When will the Rangers get around to naming a captain? (Answer: What's the rush? It's only the middle of March!)

9. Seriously: Why can't Toronto win The Cup this year? (Answer: Same as every year –  goaltending, goaltending, goaltending.)

10. How did Marty St. Louis get to be such a good coach? (Answer: He played for John Tortorella in Tampa Bay.)

11. What has Barry Trotz learned in Nashville? (Answer: That managing and coaching are as similar as bluebirds and crocodiles.)

12. Which NHL coach could be a stand-up comic if he ever left hockey. (Answer: Listen to a Paul Maurice presser and you'll know soon enough!)

The Nashville Predators (25-33-8, 58 points) kick off a three-game home stand when they host the St. Louis Blues (33-28-7, 73 points) Tuesday at Bridgestone Arena.

The Blues are currently in fifth place in the Central Divsion, eight points behind the Minnesota Wild. They are also tied with the Vancouver Canucks for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, though Vancouver holds the tiebreaker.

Predators forward and alternate captain Filip Forsberg enters play on an eight-game home point streak against the Blues dating back to Nov. 21, 2018 (5-8—13). He has posted just one longer run in his career against a single opponent (11 games vs. CBJ; active).

Tuesday's matchup marks Michael Bunting's first game at Bridgestone Arena as a member of the home team. The forward, acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of the March 7 NHL traded deadline, made his Predators debut Friday on the road against the Anaheim Ducks after being activated off of IR (appendectomy). 

Juuse Saros will get the start in goal for Nashville, while the Blues are expected to go with backup goaltender Joel Hofer against the Predators.

How the Predators Lined Up vs. St. Louis

Forsberg-O'Reilly-Stamkos
Bunting-Sissons-Marchessault
L'Heureux-Svechkov-Evangelista
Bellows-McCarron-Smith

Skjei-Blankenburg
Del Gaizo-Stastney
Englund-Barron

Saros
Annunen

Extra: Oesterle, Vrana
IR: Lauzon, Wilsby, Josi

Predators vs. Blues: Live Updates

First Period (STL 0, NSH 0)

The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to build on their four-game win streak when they take on the New York Islanders Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa.

And they'll give their hot goaltender the net yet again.

Tristan Jarry, who is 4-0 with a .930 save percentage over those four consecutive games, has earned a fifth-straight start. He has regained his form after struggling most of the season, and he will be given another opportunity to earn the Penguins a much-needed win.

The Penguins have recalled forward Joona Koppanen from the @WBSPenguins (AHL) on an emergency basis. pic.twitter.com/Yqzef3XAIu

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 18, 2025

In addition, forward Joona Koppanen was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis and will slot in the lineup in place of Emil Bemstrom.

"He can kill penalties, he can play a checking role, he can play center, he can play the wing," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "The biggest reason [for the call-up], quite honestly, is because he's played really well."

Here is the rest of the lineup:

How we're lining up tonight vs. the Islanders ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Dy6mjMt0jW

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 18, 2025

As it stands now, the Penguins are six points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders - who are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games - are two points ahead of the Penguins in the standings with three games in hand, so earning a clean two points will be critical.

"They're a good team," Sullivan said. "They're a sound defensive team, they play with structure, they've got a team game. They have solid goaltending, and they're stingy defensively. So we've got to make sure that we make it as hard on them as they're going to make it on us."

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