Pittsburgh-New York: Evegeny Malkin's Trick Keeps Islanders at Bay, 6-4

It was too much Evegeny Malkin and too much Sidney Crosby tonight at Mellon Arena as the Penguins blew 3-0 and 4-1 leads but recovered to defeat the Isles 6-4.  On to the trick:

1. Crosby scored the only goal of the first period and Malkin scored early in the second period to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead.  Malkin's goal came after Roloson was given a delay of game penalty for smothering the puck.  After Kyle Okposo was stopped on a penalty shot, a Bill Guerin power-play goal gave the Pens a 3-0 advantage midway through the second period.

 2. Andy Sutton and Freddy Meyer scored 1:42 apart in the second period, but Crosby scored his second goal in between the goals by the two defenders to give the Penguins a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.  It was his 32nd goal of the season, tying Patrick Marleau for the league lead.  

3. Trent Hunter scored 48 seconds into the third to get the Islanders close and when Richard Park scored at 7:11, it looked like the Isles might party like it was 1980.  It was the 96th goal of Hunter's Islander career, breaking a tie with David Volek and Mikko Makela for 25th place all-time. 

However, the Penguins got the winning goal from Malkin on a power play and Malkin then completed his hat trick with an empty-netter, also on the power play.  The empty-netter came after Sutton was ejected for a boarding penalty with less than three minutes to play. 

...a few more... 

4. Crosby was credited with a point on each goal, six in all (although television replays appeared to indicate that he didn't touch the puck on the final point).  It was the second six-point game of his career (Dec. 13, 2006 against Philadelphia).

The Kid now has 52 points in 28 games against the Isles while Malkin has 32 points in 25 games versus New York.  Malkin's hat trick was his second against the Isles; the Penguins have totaled six hats against the Isles in the last four seasons. 

5. The Penguin power play, which has struggled for most of the season, connected four times (including once into an empty net).  It was the first time that Pittsburgh has scored, or the Isles have allowed, four power-play goals in a game this season. 

6. Okposo was stopped on a penalty shot for the second time in his career; he was stopped by Marty Brodeur in last season's opener.  Doug Weight was stopped on a penalty shot earlier this season; the Isles have failed on their last six attempts and on 17 of their last 18 attempts.  The only success in that sequence came from Ryan Smyth in the game that Rick DiPietro was hurt in Montreal in a collision with Steve Begin. 

7. This is the first time that the Islanders have lost this season when scoring at least four goals (12-1-2).  The 10 goals scored by the two teams were the most in an Islander road game since losing 9-2 in Pittsburgh in December 2008. 

8. The Isles are now 3-14-1 in divisional road games under Scott Gordon, with all three wins coming at Madison Square Garden.  They are pointless in their last six trips to Pittsburgh (0-6-0) and in 10 of their last 10 (1-9-0).

The six-game losing streak matches their longest ever in Pittsburgh, set between March, 1988 and November, 1989.  They are two games shy of their longest winless streak in Pittsburgh, set in their first eight games ever in Pittsburgh (between 1972 and 1975) and equaled in 1988-89.

9.  The Penguins out-hit the the Isles 25-19 and won 41 of 60 face-offs.  Crosby and Jordan Staal combined to win 32 of 44 draws, while Rob Schemp and Frans Nielsen combined to lose 19 of 23.  Dwayne Roloson finished with 23 saves for the Isles while Brent Johnson stopped 31.

10. The Penguins lead the series two games to one, and four points to three.  The Isles return to Pittsburgh on Feb. 8, and the teams then meet twice in the season's final three games.  I wonder if those games will mean anything to Pittsburgh.  Hey, it worked for the Jets! 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982.  Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick