Nelson, Islanders rally for OT victory against Penguins

PITTSBURGH -- Brock Nelson scored 2:13 into overtime, and the New York Islanders came back from down two goals in the third period to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.

Nelson won it with a wrist shot inside the left post on a breakaway, started by goalie Ilya Sorokin swatting a centering pass from Rickard Rakell off the boards and into the neutral zone.
Anders Lee scored twice, including a tying goal with 1:15 left in the third, and Sorokin made 33 saves for the Islanders (34-25-8), who are 4-0-1 in their past five games. They came from behind in the third period to defeat the Penguins for the third time in 21 days.
"We've found ourselves in that situation a few times this season, [but] we've been able to come out with victories," Nelson said. "We were able to kind of reset after the second and realize where we're at isn't a good spot. We haven't played our best, so we wanted to come out and turn it up."

Hudson Fasching also scored in the third for New York, which holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of Pittsburgh.
Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker scored, and Jeff Petry had two assists for the Penguins (32-22-10), who are 5-1-1 in their past seven. Tristan Jarry made 24 saves.
Pittsburgh is four points ahead of the Florida Panthers for the second wild card.
"It's tough to swallow. It stings," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I feel badly for the players because I thought for the majority of the night, we were the better team."

Fasching cut it to 3-2 at 14:31, kicking a pass from Casey Cizikas onto his stick for a wrist shot just outside the crease.
Lee tied it 3-3 with his second of the game at 18:45 by redirecting a shot from Noah Dobson.
"We stick with our game," said Lee, the Islanders captain. "We play the way we have been, we did it the last 20 [minutes], on our forecheck, our guys can make plays and score goals. Down 3-1, it's definitely a big task. It's not going to happen every night, but we believe in ourselves."
New York had 13 shots on goal in the third period after being held to 13 in the first two.
"They played a full 65 [minutes]," Jarry said. "We were able to push the first and second period. I think just a little bit of puck mismanagement in the third period. A couple of bounces went their way."

Lee gave New York a 1-0 lead on a power play at 5:23 of the first period. Jarry fumbled a shot from Bo Horvat, allowing Horvat to collect it and pass to Lee out front for a wrist shot that snuck across the goal line before Petry could scoop it away.
Pittsburgh responded with three straight goals.
Guentzel tied it 1-1 at 11:07, deflecting a point shot from Marcus Pettersson for his 26th goal this season.
Zucker gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 18:24, a wrist shot from the slot off a backhand pass from Evgeni Malkin. He has seven goals in his past six games.
"I think we were rolling the lines early in the game," Petry said. "We were able to dictate the pace and control the play there."

Josh Archibald made it 3-1 at 10:49 of the second period, when a point shot from Brian Dumoulin went in off his glove to end a 24-game goal drought.
Sorokin made 10 saves in the third.
"You're going to have a night maybe where you're a little bit off," Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. "The key to a good hockey team is to find a way to win a game like that. We did."
NOTES:The Islanders swept the four-game season series with the Penguins; they trailed 4-3 in the third of a 5-4 victory on Feb. 17 before scoring three goals in the third period to come back from down one and win 4-2 on Feb. 20. Nelson had nine points (five goals, four assists) in the four games, and Lee scored seven goals. … New York completed the 50th third-period, multigoal comeback win across the NHL this season, passing 2009-10 (49) for the highest single-season total. It has outscored opponents 17-1 in the third in its past 10 games. … Sorokin's assist on Nelson's goal was his first in 123 NHL games. … Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby had an assist on Guentzel's goal. He has 132 career points against the Islanders and passed Mario Lemieux for second-most against them. Jaromir Jagr had 155.