Islanders come back from two goals down in third to defeat Penguins in shootout
Bo Horvat of the Islanders skates past the Penguins defense during a game on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 at UBS Arena. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Better late than never.
The Islanders struggled early with their passing and shot accuracy but a strong third period led to a 4-3 shootout win over the Penguins on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 32 shots for the Islanders (5-6-2) while Alex Nedeljkovic made 23 saves for the Penguins (5-7-2).
The Islanders overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period to tie it at 3-3 on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s rising shot from the slot off Bo Horvat’s feed at 12:48. Horvat scored the only goal of the shootout, shoving it under Nedelikovic
The Islanders, a day after returning defenseman Samuel Bolduc to their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, called up blueliner Isaiah George, 20, a fourth-round pick in 2022 to make his NHL debut in just his fifth professional game. He started with the traditional solo rookie lap before the Islanders took the ice for warmups.
It marked the second straight game defensemen Adam Pelech (jaw/four-to-six weeks), Mike Reilly (concussion/day to day) and Alexander Romanov (upper body/day to day) were unavailable. Bolduc, 23, was sent down after logging just 5:56 in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, with his turnover leading to Vincent Trocheck’s second-period goal and coach Patrick Roy saying after the match Bolduc, “needs to be better if he wants to play for us.”
The 6-1, 196-pound George had one goal and one assist playing in four of Bridgeport’s first nine games after reaching junior hockey’s Memorial Cup final with London of the Ontario Hockey League last season. He had six goals and 24 assists in 68 regular-season games for the Knights and added four goals and eight assists in 18 postseason games.
“Extremely calm,” Pageau said during an in-game television interview of George’s play. George got 22 shifts and one shot on goal, and was on the ice with less than two minutes to play in a tie game.
Evgeni Malkin’s power-play one-timer from the right circle gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 13:37 with Max Tsyplakov in the penalty box for tripping. Kyle Palmieri, swatting at a floating puck on the rebound of Bo Horvat’s shot, had tied it at 12:21 of the second period. That became 3-1 at 7:44 of the third period as Noel Acciari’s stretch pass to Jesse Puljujarvi created an odd-man situation, with Puljujarvi passing around defenseman Grant Hutton and Michael Bunting beating defenseman Dennis Cholowski up ice for his first goal of the season.
But Simon Holmstrom lifted a power-play backhander at 9:41 to bring the Islanders within 3-2.
The Penguins opened the scoring as Sidney Crosby – with goal No. 598 – was open in the slot after defenseman Scott Mayfield turned the puck over deep in the Islanders’ zone at 5:27 of the second period.
The Islanders challenged that Noel Acciari, trying to get off the ice and onto the Penguins’ bench in the offensive zone, was offside. And while it appeared the puck had crossed the goal line, the goal stood, leaving a disbelieving Roy irate.
The Islanders had trouble connecting on their passes early but nearly went into the first intermission with a lead after Tsyplakov created a turnover and went in on a breakaway with 23 seconds left. But the puck rolled off his stick as Nedeljkovic stretched his right pad to defend.
Holmstrom also had the puck come off his stick as he got to the crease at 16:20 of the second period. And Oliver Wahlstrom wristed a shot wide as he got open in the slot midway through the first period.
Notes & quotes: Sorokin’s third straight start marked his 200th NHL appearance. He became the fifth Islanders’ goalie to reach that milestone with the team after Billy Smith (674 games), Rick DiPietro (318), Chico Resch (282) and Kelly Hrudey (241) . . . Roy said there was no update on Romanov or Reilly and neither had resumed skating . . . Left wing Matt Martin remained a healthy scratch.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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