It seems that with every win the Pittsburgh Penguins have had during their recent winning streak, someone different steps up.
Saturday afternoon, it was Matt Cooke’s turn to play hero.
Cooke broke open a scoreless game in the third period by picking up a loose puck and getting it by New York Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov at the 8:10 mark of the third period. Cooke’s goal would be all that penguins goaltender Tomas Vokoun would need as he stopped all 35 shots he faced, as the Penguins ran their winning streak to 15 with a 2-0 victory over the Islanders.
The win gives the Pens the second longest winning streak in NHL history and became the first team in history to go an entire month without losing a game.
While the Penguins have been known to be a great offensive team, it’s the job they have done defensively that have them playing as well as they have as of late.
Today’s win makes it three shutouts in a row and the combination of Vokoun and Marc-Andre Fleury haven’t allowed a goal in over 200 minutes of ice time, also setting a franchise record.
On a day where Jarome Iginla made his Penguins debut, the Pens got a dose of bad news when they found out that defenseman Paul Martin would be out for six weeks with a broken bone that requires surgery.
The news didn’t get better early on when Sidney Crosby was lost for the game.
Crosby was hit in the face with a puck after a Brooks Orpik slap shot and all the Penguins would confirm was the fact that Crosby wouldn’t return for this one.
Without Crosby on the ice, the Pens started very slow, not registering their first shot on net until the 11-minute mark of the first period. After the first 20 minutes, the Pens managed only five shots on goal, while allowing the Islanders 12.
Things didn’t get much better in the second period as halfway through the period, the Penguins still had only seven shots on goal, with three coming from defenseman Deryk Engelland.
They weren’t without their chances though as Chris Kunitz missed a wide open cage and then took a penalty to take away the Penguins first power play.
James Neal also missed a golden opportunity in front of the net when he took a pretty feed from Iginla and shot it wide of the cage.
Kunitz then did his best to put an end to the Penguins winning streak when he took a major penalty and received a game misconduct for launching the Islanders Josh Bailey into the boards.
But that’s when Cooke took over.
Cooke was a man possessed, doing a fantastic job in helping the Pens kill off the five-minute penalty, where they were two men down for a portion of that.
Things started to pick up for the Penguins, but the momentum switched in their favor for good at the 7:30 mark of the final period when Vokoun stoned the Islanders Michael Grabner on a breakaway. Less than a minute later, it was almost fitting that Cooke was the man to break the scoreless tie.
It was Cooke’s sixth goal of the season and his first in 13 games.
Five minutes later, Neal broke out of his slump, burying a wrist shot past Nabokov to give the Pens a 2-0 advantage. It was Neal’s 18th goal of the season and first in his last nine games.
Newly acquired Douglas Murray got his first point as a Penguin, assisting on Neal’s goal.
As for the other newcomer, Iginla received 17:30 of ice time and had three shots on goal, but the 16-year veteran looked very comfortable playing with Neal and Evgeni Malkin for the first time.
The Pens will look to make it 16 in a row when they play host to the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night at the CONSOL Energy Arena.
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