Penguins Rebound, Stave off Islanders, 3-2
Less than 24 hours after soft serving a less-than-inspired effort in a loss to the Islanders on Long Island, the Penguins turned the tables on their nettlesome foe last night at PPG Paints Arena.
The result? For the most part, a solid 3-2 victory over the Isles.
Indeed, the Pens did a lot of things right last night. For starters, they grabbed the lead on an early goal by former Islander Anthony Beauvillier and kept ratcheting up the pressure to the tune of 41 shots on goal. The patchwork defense, sans Kris Letang, held up surprisingly well. Following nearly two weeks in cold storage, Alex Nedeljkovic authored a strong 29-save performance between the pipes, including a couple of big stops late in the second period to blunt an Islanders push.
Oh, and Sidney Crosby recorded career assist No. 1034 early in the second period on Michael Bunting’s power-play goal to pass a fellow named Mario Lemieux on the all-time list. Anytime you get anywhere near Mario in anything, let alone pass him…
…to say it’s an enormous achievement is the understatement of the millennium.