The Penguins special teams came alive on Saturday night to help the team to a 3-1 victory over the previously unbeaten New York Islanders. Assistant Coach Rick Tocchet’s power play unit continued it’s torrid start with a two for four night and Assistant Coach Gary Agnew’s penalty killers emerged from their early season funk to go seven for seven and seal the Penguins’ victory.
The Penguins undisciplined play gave New York plenty of chances with the man advantage, but the Islanders managed only ten shots in their 10:49 of power play time, and Marc-Andre Fleury held strong for all of them. The Islanders failed to score a power play goal for the first time this season.
With the Islanders already leading early in the second period, successful kill on a two-man advantage was key, according to Head Coach Mike Johnston: “Certainly tonight, they came through big time. That was a turning point in the game, that five-on-three kill.”
On the power play, the Penguins continued to roll as the top unit of Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, Patric Hornqvist, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang scored two goals in less than a minute during the second period.
Islanders forward Cory Conacher took a minor penalty for tripping Crosby at 12:56 of the second period. The Penguins sent their second power play unit out, and just 38 seconds later the Islanders took a too-many men penalty to give the Penguins a two-man advantage.
Out came the first unit and big guns were unleashed as Malkin scored on a slap shot from the point. Just 55 seconds later, another Malkin slap shot was deflected in by Hornqvist to turn a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 lead.
“When you get a five-on three opportunity as they had, and then we had right after, those are turning points. We scored; they didn’t [and] it was the turning point in the game,” said Johnston.
With a two goals, the Penguins power play is now eight for 17 on the season. Their 47.1 percent success rate is tops in the league.
Thomas Hickey opened up the scoring for the Islanders in the first period as Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta fell down in the neutral zone and Crosby wasn’t able to find his man on the back-check.
Hornqvist added an empty net goal late in third for his first multi-goal game as a Penguin.
The Penguins are off Sunday and will return to practice Monday as they await their cross-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, on Wednesday.
