Pens rally, beat Isles in shootout

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Evgeni Malkin was just as surprised as everyone else outside of the Islanders’ bench was when New York replaced goalie Evgeni Nabokov at the end of overtime.

Malkin knew exactly what he was going to do against Rick DiPietro in the shootout, and he allowed the Pittsburgh Penguins to extend their recent mastery over the Islanders.

Malkin’s shootout goal capped a rally from a two-goal deficit in the third period and Pittsburgh won its fifth consecutive game, 3-2 over the Islanders on Thursday night.

“It was a surprise for me and the whole team,” Malkin said of the Islanders swapping out goalies for the shootout after Nabokov had stopped 30 of 32 shots. “Nabokov played a great game.

“When I saw DiPietro, I knew I would do my good move. It was a surprise, he fell down. It was a lucky goal.”

Pittsburgh’s second shooter of the shootout, Malkin walked in, made multiple dekes in close while avoiding a pole check and slid the puck under a sprawling DiPietro with his backhand.

Chris Kunitz and James Neal scored 2:46 apart early in the third period less than a minute after Matt Martin had given the Islanders a 2-0 lead.

Frans Nielsen had a first-period goal for New York, which has lost four in a row overall and hasn’t won in Pittsburgh in almost four years.

The Penguins have won 12 consecutive home games against the Islanders.

Nabokov said he sustained a minor lower-body injury in the first period that worsened as the game progressed. Heading into his team’s first shootout of the season, New York coach Jack Capuano had to turn to DiPietro, who hadn’t appeared in a game yet this season and whose previous appearance in Pittsburgh ended with him sustaining a broken cheekbone from a punch from Penguins backup goalie Brent Johnson in February.

DiPietro’s 19-10 record in shootouts coming in was one of the best in the league among active goalies, and his .732 save percentage was tied for ninth.