Brock Nelson, playing in his 500th career game, scored with 43.5 seconds left in overtime Thursday night as the red-hot New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and set a franchise record for points in consecutive games at 16.
The Islanders have gone 15-0-1 in a span that began Oct. 12 to break the previous franchise-best points streak set in 1978-79 and matched in 1980-81 and 1981-82, the last of which featured 15 straight wins. New York’s only blemish in its current streak was an overtime loss to the Penguins on Nov. 7, also in Brooklyn, in which it blew a three-goal, third-period lead.
The Islanders’ point streak is the longest in the NHL since the Tampa Bay Lightning also went 15-0-1 in 16 straight games from Nov. 29, 2018 through Jan. 3, 2019. The last team to record points in at least 17 straight games was the Boston Bruins with 19 games last season.
Nelson also gave Islanders the lead with 4:52 left in the third, but Patric Hornqvist scored with 29.9 seconds remaining to force overtime.
Scott Mayfield scored in the first period, and Anthony Beauvillier scored in the second for the Islanders. Goalie Thomas Greiss made 23 saves.
Evgeni Malkin scored in the first period, and Bryan Rust scored in the second for the Penguins, who also lost to the Islanders in overtime in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and have dropped four of five (1-1-3) overall. Matt Murray recorded 20 saves.
The Penguins took the lead just 64 seconds after faceoff. Jake Guentzel attempted to backhand a shot toward Greiss, but the puck skittered across the crease and toward Malkin, who dove ahead of Adam Pelech and hit the ice as he poked the shot past a sprawling Greiss.
The Islanders tied the score late in the period following Mathew Barzal’s faceoff win deep in the Penguins’ zone. The puck bounced to Mayfield, whose slap shot from just in front of the blue line sailed past a gaggle of players, and also past Murray, who was screened by Anders Lee, for the goal with 4:48 left.
An Islanders turnover led to the Penguins’ second goal a mere 1:09 into the second. Jordan Eberle’s pass in the Pittsburgh zone was intended for Ryan Pulock, but the puck sailed by him and into the neutral zone, where Rust picked it up and went in untouched for the breakaway goal.
The Islanders scored the game-tying goal on the power play shortly beyond the midway point of the period when Beauvillier rebounded a shot by Derick Brassard and tucked it into the corner of the net as Nelson screened Murray with 8:22 remaining.
Lightning sink Blackhawks with late push
Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Cedric Paquette scored third-period goals, and the Tampa Bay Lightning held on for a 4-2 win over the host Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.
Mikhail Sergachev also scored for Tampa Bay, which snapped a two-game skid.
Brent Seabrook and Dylan Strome scored for the Blackhawks. Chicago has lost back-to-back games after winning the previous four in a row.
Lightning goaltender Curtis McElhinney made 32 saves to improve to 3-1-2 on the season.
Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford turned aside 31 shots but dropped to 4-5-2. Tampa Bay broke a scoreless tie when it converted on the power play with 3:50 remaining in the first period. Sergachev faked a shot from the blue line and instead slid a pass to Yanni Gourde near the top of the left circle. Gourde quickly returned a pass to Sergachev, who blasted a slap shot past Crawford for his first goal of the season. Pat Maroon also picked up an assist on the play, which marked Tampa Bay’s 17th power-play goal in 19 games. The Lightning entered the night with the second-best power play in the NHL, scoring on 29.6 percent of their opportunities.
Tampa Bay clung to a one-goal lead until midway through the third period, when Seabrook evened the score at 1-1. The veteran defenseman pinched in behind the net and banked a shot off McElhinney for his third goal of the season. Seabrook’s highlight-reel goal came on his bobblehead night at the United Center, where he has played since 2005.
Only 1:17 later, Tampa Bay responded to pull back in front 2-1. Victor Hedman fired a wrist shot from the high slot, and Cirelli tipped it in for his fourth goal of the season and his third in the past three games. The Lightning made it 3-1 with 7:37 remaining in the third period. Point tipped in a feed from Ondrej Palat for his fifth goal.
Strome tallied his fifth goal to pull Chicago within 3-2 with 2:43 to go, but Paquette’s empty-net goal padded the lead in the final minute.
from Gulf Times https://ift.tt/34etIqP
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