The New York Islanders will have a chance to advance to the second round of the playoffs tomorrow night, after taking a 3-2 series lead with a double overtime win in Game 5 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
— x - New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) May 25, 2021
The first period favoured the Penguins and despite the shots being fairly close, Pittsburgh got the better chances overall. Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring with a nice shot on a power play, picking a corner to beat Ilya Sorokin. The Islanders did manage to tie it with under a minute to go in the frame though, when Anthony Beauvillier made some good moves to get around a couple Penguins to get to the net and beat Tristan Jarry.
However, things got much worse for the Islanders in the second period. The Islanders were outshot by a ridiculous 20-4 margin and gave up way too many chances. A huge part of the period was spent in the Islanders end, with a rush often being followed by several more chances with New York stuck in their own zone. Bryan Rust scored the only goal of the period with a well-placed shot on a rush and New York escaped the period down by a single goal.
The Islanders continued to be outplayed in the third period, even if it was by a smaller margin. However, New York managed to tie the game after a good forecheck by Jean-Gabriel Pageau forced a turnover, which resulted in Jordan Eberle getting the puck in front and tucking it past Jarry. The Penguins had a couple good chances to take back the lead but couldn’t beat Sorokin, before the Islanders got a power play opportunity pretty late in third period but couldn’t get much going. Oliver Wahlstrom also had a bit of a scary injury when he went into the boards hard and he’s now listed as day-to-day.
In overtime, New York did a much better job of limiting quality chances for the Penguins but still didn’t manage to get many of their own. After a pretty slow period, the game went to double overtime.
The second overtime period didn’t last long. Under a minute in, Anthony Beauvillier pressured Jarry who was handling the puck, which played a role in a turnover to Josh Bailey who capitalized on the mistake and beat Jarry from in close.
New York was outshot by a total of 50-28 and though sometimes I’ll say the Islanders gave up a lot of shots but not a ton of quality chances, last night wasn’t one of those times. The Islanders were badly outplayed through most of the game and Sorokin had to be excellent, with players constantly being left alone in front for great chances.
Honestly, this was probably a game the Islanders didn’t deserve to win but that’s hockey – one goalie stands on his head while the other makes a costly mistake and that can be the difference.
The Islanders picked up a key win and now have the chance to close out the series tomorrow night.
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