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 Kyle Okposo scored the decisive shootout goal in impressive
fashion as the Islanders edged the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 for a
rare victory at Consol Energy Center on Friday.
Okposo, a right winger, beat Marc-Andre Flurey badly, denying the
Penguins goaltender his 300th career victory.
"He came down, I tried to show him something, and it didn't work,"
Fluery said.
Yet Capuano wasn't all that thrilled after the Islanders (13-6-0)
won for just the sixth time in their last 28 games in Pittsburgh and
got within two points of the first-place Penguins (13-4-1) in the
Metropolitan Division standings.
"We were resilient, we came back, we had some chances, we stayed at
it, but collectively as a group we've got to be better," Capuano
said. "We weren't mentally dialed in. We've had a couple games like
this that we've been able to win but you can't play like this
against a team like Pittsburgh and win very often."
Center Frans Nielson also scored in the shootout for the Islanders.
Center Sidney Crosby scored for the Penguins in the tiebreaking
skills competition.
 Center Ryan Strome had a goal and two assists for the Islanders in
regulation and left wingers Matt Martin and Nikolay Kulemin and
defenseman Nick Leddy also scored. Backup goaltender Chad Johnson
stopped 26 shots.
The Penguins tied the game at 4 with seven minutes remaining in
regulation when right winger Patric Hornqvist scored his
team-leading 10th goal of the season.
Also scoring goals for the Penguins were center Brandon Sutter, left
winger Blake Comeau and center Nick Spaling. Center Evgeni Malkin
had a pair of assists and Fluery made 31 saves.
The Penguins briefly thought they won the game with 3:15 left in
overtime when defenseman Kris Letang tried to stuff a wraparound
past Johnson and the arena goal horn sounded. Defenseman Johnny
Boychuk got his stick on the puck to stuff Letang on the goal line,
however.
Oddly, the Islanders improved to 6-1-0 in games in which the
opposing team scores first.
The Islanders scored three goals in the span of 1:35 in the first
period to take a 3-1 lead.
Martin had his first goal of the season at 8:18 and Kulemin scored
unassisted 29 seconds later, his fourth goal of the season, before
Strome capped the flurry with his fourth at 9:53.
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"It seems like I like to go on those 20-game, 30-game goalless
droughts, which is pretty tough," Martin said. "Luckily, thankfully,
that one went in, and it's a big weight off my shoulders."
Comeau helped the Penguins cut their deficit to one with his fifth
goal of the season at 16:34.
Both team traded goals in the second period as the Islanders took a
4-3 lead into the third. Leddy scored his fifth of the season at
5:42 to put New York ahead by two goals and Spaling answered at 8:50
with his third.
A little more than a minute into the game, Sutter opened the scoring
at 1:13 with his sixth goal of the season.
"The first period, we didn't really give ourselves a chance, the way
we played," Crosby said. "For whatever reason, we didn't play well
at all. They carried the play and got rewarded for it. We came back
hard. We were able to get ourselves back in the game. We just didn't
play a full 60 minutes and didn't really deserve to win the game."
NOTES: Penguins RW Pascal Dupuis was placed on injured reserve two
days after it was announced he has a blood clot in a lung that will
cause him to miss at least six months. He received a standing
ovation when he was shown on the scoreboard sitting in a private
box. A corresponding roster move was not immediately made. ... LW
Blake Comeau, who was credited with eight hits, is replacing Dupuis
on the first line along with C Sidney Crosby and RW Chris Kunitz,
and C Zach Sill is expected to see more time on the penalty kill.
... Islanders RW Michael Grabner, who has been sidelined all season
while recovering from sports hernia surgery, traveled with the team
to Pittsburgh but was not immediately activated. ... Islanders RW
Cal Clutterbuck, LW Matt Martin and C Casey Cizikas each had five
hits. ... The teams play again Saturday night in Uniondale, N.Y.,
with Islanders G Jaroslav Halak and Penguins G Thomas Greiss
expected to be in net. Halak has won five straight starts, including
two shutouts during the streak.
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