Penguins Make Race for Division Leader Tight
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The Pittsburgh Penguins win over the New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils loss, last night, has now tied up these two teams in points and records. Unfortunately, since the Devils have a better record over the Penguins, Pittsburgh will need to win in points. With two games remaining for both of these teams, both of these teams are guaranteed to fall somewhere between the second and fourth seed.
Brooks Orpik wasted no time scoring against the Islanders, putting in the opening goal in the first 23 seconds of play, giving him one of the fastest goals this season. A little under five minutes later, Alex Goligoski scored his eighth goal of the season during a Penguins Power Play, giving Pittsburgh the two goal lead. However, New York closed the gap a few minutes later with a Power Play goal of their own.
With about five minutes remaining in the period, Evgeni Malkin had an unassisted goal to put the Penguins ahead by two again. New York answered right back two minutes later, but with under a minute left in the first period, Sidney Crosby put in his 49th goal of the season, making the score 4-2. Crosby grabbed four points in this game, putting him just four points behind the NHL points leader.
New York held it strong up into the second period, trailing by only a single goal after scoring their third. Fortunately, the Penguins stepped up their game in all aspects, and held the Islanders to those three goals, while putting in three more of their own. The first came from Bill Guerin during a Power Play in the 14th minute of the second period, deflected in off a slap shot from Crosby, followed by a goal from Tyler Kennedy about two minutes later. Guerin grabbed a second goal early in the third period to finish off New York.
Marc Andre Fleury gave up three goals against the Islanders, but made 32 saves in the process. Determined not to get switched out, and to add another win to his record and his team’s record, Fleury stood his ground and held the Islanders scoreless for the second half of this game.
The Penguins play their second to last game this Saturday, April 10th, against the Atlanta Thrashers. The Penguins defeated the Thrashers in Over Time a few games ago, and if they can do it again, they will stay alive in this race for Division Leader. The puck will drop at 7:00 P.M. ET.
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