Islanders Finish up the Regular Season a 5–4 Victory Over the Penguins

Wednesday night, the postseason-bound New York Islanders defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4. Sidney Crosby’s last-minute penalty shot was denied by Ilya Sorokin, and Simon Holmstrom scored the game’s winning goal in the third period.

The Islanders, who had won eight of their previous nine games (8-0) at the close of the regular season, received goals and assists from Brock Nelson, Samuel Bolduc, Casey Cizikas, and Kyle Palmieri. In his debut, Ruslan Iskhakov recorded his first NHL assist.

With one save on Crosby in the last minute after the Penguins were given a penalty shot, Sorokin finished with 39 saves.

The Islanders, who took third place in the Metropolitan Division, meet Carolina in their first playoff game on Saturday.

Jeff Carter of Pittsburgh scored in what was probably his last NHL game. The Penguins also had goals from Valtteri Puustinen, Rickard Rakell, and Evgeni Malkin. At the end of the season, Crosby had 94 points (42 goals and 52 assists), with two assists.

Despite Alex Nedeljkovic’s 27 saves, the Penguins missed out on the postseason for the second consecutive year.

At 14:27 of the third period, with the score knotted at 4, Holmstrom wristed a shot from the faceoff circle past Nedeljkovic’s blocker to give the Islanders a one-goal lead again.

At 10:56 of the third, Carter, 39, scored after finishing a feed from Crosby to knot the score at four.

At 4:56 in the first period, Nelson completed a nice feed from Holmstrom to start the scoring.

Late in the first, Rakell beat Sorokin with a smooth wrister close to the blue line, tying the score at one.

Pittsburgh took advantage of the penalty play and took the lead for the first time in the game when Crosby found Malkin close to the far post. The authorities checked the goal for a kicking action, but they still declared it a good goal.

At 13:19 of the second, Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov skillfully maintained possession of the puck in the offensive zone and fired a shot that Cizikas deflected past Nedeljkovic to equalise the score at two.

At 14:37, Puustinen grabbed the puck from New York defenseman Adam Pelech and blasted a shot past Sorokin to give Pittsburgh a momentary one-goal lead.

In the last minute of the second, Palmieri tied the record for the second time in his NHL career, having scored thirty goals.

At 1:36 of the third, Bolduc’s shot unintentionally bounced off Ryan Shea of the Penguins and past Nedeljkovic, giving the Islanders a 4-3 lead. Iskhakov and Ryan Pulock both contributed to the game-winning power-play goal.