Matt Moulson with his sixth goal of the season and fourth power play goal started off the first, but the Penguins wouldn’t go sulk in a corner. A little over three minutes later, the Pens tied it up with a Jokinen wrist shot. Deflating to say the least. Then Crosby scored the lone goal in the second period to put the Penguins in the lead on a Matt Donovan mistake. He’s young. He makes them. But he may sit a bit now.
Thomas Hickey played a good game and paid with his blood -- and his nose and first came back on the ice with a cage and then with a clear face mask. That didn’t stop the blood from pouring again when he slammed into the boards. He was a +3 and had an assist point on a Frans Nielsen goal that tied the game at two.
Speaking of assists, Radek Martinek had two. His first game back in an Isles sweater, and he gets on the score sheet. As Jack Capuano said in his post game, you always know what you’re going to get with Martinek. “He has great mobility and agility.” Josh Bailey said he is “a machine.” He works hard at it.
Sidney Crosby, who it is said has more points against the Islanders than any other team (figures), had a chance to score a second goal five minutes into the third period on a breakaway leaving him alone heading towards Nabokov. He made a huge save from his knees. He was forced to make a few more to keep the Isles in the game.
Frans Nielsen tied the game at two at 12:46 of the third period. It was beautiful. The euphoria lasted all of 16 seconds before Engelland gave the Penguins the lead again. Deflating to say the least. Fifty-three seconds later, Bouchard scored his first goal as an Islander from a back handed pass from Martinek. His contract is worth it already.
But that wasn’t enough. Josh Bailey had been frustrated all night, and it showed. But he wasn’t giving up. Then the last few minutes of the third period just got intense. A broken stick only frustrated Bailey more; reading the play, he pushed Dupuis off the puck and went to get another stick and away he went with the puck, passing it back and forth with Okposo. He took a shot that Zatkoff saved, but the rebound came back to Bailey who tried again and got the puck over Zatkoff and into the net. It was the game winner.
In the post game report, Jack Capuano told Peter Ruttgaizer they were fortunate to get the points tonight after giving the Penguins five power play opportunities. Considering the change in his line-up, he felt they defended “pretty well” but admitted “We couldn’t get anything going with our forward lines.” So he started changing things up. Butch Goring said it looked as if he was just picking names out of hat to put the lines together, but it forced the Isles to think differently and be more alert.
Josh Bailey should start getting used to being named a star of the game. Tonight he came in behind Frans Nielsen and in front of Crosby. He gave a lot of the credit to Frans Nielsen calling him one of the Isles best played. “He’s the most reliable forward in any situation. It’s good to see him get rewarded for it.”
Bailey gave an assist on the game winning goal to Scott Boggs who grabbed one of Bailey’s sticks to get him back in the play quickly. Had it been someone else’s stick, maybe that goal wouldn’t have happened.
“You just play until that buzzer goes. And that’s what we did.” Thomas Hickey said post game.
No giving up. No backing down. There are a lot of games ahead of this Islander team.
Tomorrow they are back on their home ice facing the Flyers and Tuesday night, the dreaded Rangers. Why not take the advice that is going around and bring your rally towels to the game on Tuesday. Let’s distract the Rangers and show the Islanders we Still Believe!
Also -- John Tavares had an assist in this game too. He just continues to add to his totals.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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