3 Takeaways: Islanders Fight Back for 4-2 Win Over Penguins

The New York Islanders showed a lot of fight on Monday night.
In the literal sense, they found themselves in a five-on-five brouhaha at the end of the second period in Monday's 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. In a more abstract sense, they fought their way out of a third period deficit and scored a comeback win for the second time in four days against the Penguins.

"That's what you're going to see the rest of the way here," Islanders captain Anders Lee, who scored the game-winning goal, said. "Say whatever you want about us, but we're going to battle and we're going to fight to the end on all this."
As a result, the Islanders (65 points) leapfrogged the Penguins (63 points) and the Florida Panthers (64 points) in the playoff race, moving into the first wild card position in the Eastern Conference. While the Penguins still hold games in hand on the shorthanded Islanders, who were without Mathew Barzal, it was a crucial result as the playoff race remains tight.
Along with Lee's winning goal, the Islanders got a pair of tallies from Brock Nelson and a goal from Bo Horvat (1G, 1A), while the Penguins got goals from Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker (PPG).

SCRUM SPARKS ISLANDERS

It was no surprise that tensions were high with the teams tangling for the second time in four days, especially locked dead-even at 63 points apiece fighting for a wild card berth.
That tension, also born of playoff matchups in 2013, 2019 and 2021, boiled over towards the end of the second period, with a brouhaha breaking out between all 10 players on the ice, and 52 PIMs being assigned.
"We upped our compete a little bit," Matt Martin said. "There's an emotional scrum late and the second that all five guys are in on and that kind of ups the emotion. You come in here at intermission and you want to beat them that much more but we just we knew we're capable of coming back."
It started right after Ilya Sorokin robbed Kris Letang with a desperation paddle save and before long, the usual pushing and shoving involved everyone on the ice, with Ross Johnston overtop of Evgeni Malkin, and a lot of steam being vented out. The penalty box was so crowded that the last 2:45 of the period was played with seven players on the bench for each team.

The Islanders were down 2-1 at the time of the scrum, but took that galvanizing energy into the locker room for the second intermission. Playing without five regular forwards (Barzal, Josh Bailey, Cal Clutterbuck, JG Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom) it was a come together moment.
"It's just camaraderie," said Johnston, who picked up 14 PIMs in the scrum. "Everyone's coming together and working as a team. This is a family at the end of the day, the dads are here, we're all here together. When something happens, we're all going to stick together."
After a lopsided first period - where the Isles were outshot 19-7 and trailed 1-0 - and a spirited period that saw Sorokin and Alexander Romanov - who swept a Jeff Carter deflection off the goal line - go save for save, the Isles capitalized in the third.
At the heart of it were a pair of gaffes from Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry, who allowed a sharp-angled shot from Horvat at the 8:34 mark to tie the score 2-2. Less than two minutes later, Jarry gave the puck away to Horvat, who dished to Martin, who found Lee at the side of the net to stuff in the go-ahead goal at 10:15.
Sorokin, who was spectacular all night, stopped all 10 shots he saw in the third period, including an early shorthanded breakaway from Teddy Blueger.
"We've done it before and we knew that we could do it again," Horvat said of the comeback. "I think the scrum had a lot to do with it."

MARTIN PLAYS WAY ONTO TOP LINE:

With Mathew Barzal out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, Martin may not have been the obvious choice to replace him alongside Horvat and Lee, but Martin played his way into that position as the game wore on - and factored into the winning goal.
ISLANDERS 4, PENGUINS 2
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Postgame: Lambert
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KINGER'S CALLS
Nelson Ties It
Horvat Ties It
Lee's Game-Winner
Nelson Ices the Game
Martin had the primary assist on Lee's eventual winner, taking a feed from Horvat after a Jarry turnover and immediately finding the captain at the side of the net.
"He deserves a lot more credit for how heady he is with his vision and his play," Lee said of Martin. "You just give them an opportunity and look, he makes a play. He's strong. He's great on the forecheck and he's always in the right position defensively."
Martin finished the game with an assist, 13:41 TOI, three shots, three hits and two penalty minutes. Martin has four points (2G, 2A) in his last five games.
"It was fun playing with them," Martin said. "They're two big bodies and in a lot of ways they play a similar game. They want to hold the puck down will be big and strong on it. Play a responsible game."
The physical winger didn't start the game on that line, as Simon Holmstrom had the first crack. The initial line was on the ice for Guentzel's goal at 6:12 of the first period, a play that saw Guentzel and Rickard Rakell worked the puck off the rush to Crosby, who set up the backdoor play back to Guentzel.
After skating 4:26 in the first period, Holmstrom saw 1:58 in the second and 2:26 in the third finishing with one shot attempt and a giveaway.

DURANDEAU DEBUTS:

Arnaud Durandeau made his NHL debut on Monday night and made a good impression on Lane Lambert.
"I thought he was good, I liked his speed," Lambert said. "He has a tendency for the puck to kind of follow him around. It gets on his stick and not by accident. He seems to be in the right spot, so I thought he created a spark and some offense for us."
Durandeau had four shots on goal, two hits and drew a penalty in 14:09 of ice time, skating primarily with Casey Cizikas and Hudson Fasching. He was on the ice for Horvat's goal, as Fasching batted down a Penguins clearing attempt to keep the play alive.
"It took a couple of shifts like to get in it," Durandeau said. "I got a couple of chances, hoped one would have gone in, but it's nice to get chances and hopefully next game, bury one."
Durandeau also had the benefit of having his parents and three siblings in attendance, as they were at his sister Eva's senior day at Brown University. Eva plays for the Brown women's hockey team.
"I'm super happy for them to be able to drive up here," Durandeau said. "They've done so much for me and made so many sacrifices. It's a great day for all of us."

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders return home to take on the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night at UBS Arena. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.