Penguins  2    Islanders  3

Recap: NY Islanders vs. Pittsburgh

Sports Network | November 27, 2009

Uniondale, NY (Sports Network) - John Tavares scored the go-ahead goal in the late stages of the third period, and the New York Islanders held on to edge the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, in an Atlantic Division matchup at Nassau Coliseum.

Josh Bailey and Sean Bergenheim also tallied for the Islanders, who were able to recover nicely after dropping a 2-1 decision to Philadelphia on Wednesday. Dwayne Roloson turned aside 19-of-21 shots for New York, which has split its last six games.

"It goes without saying, I think we'd be hard pressed to find more than one or two turnovers in the third period," Islanders head coach Scott Gordon said. "We pushed the pace and we got to commend the guys on their effort."

Evgeni Malkin and Matt Cooke scored for Pittsburgh, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Brent Johnson got the start between the pipes and finished with 34 saves.

"I think we pride ourselves on being a strong third period team and raising our level when it's time and we didn't do a good job of that," Penguins center Sidney Crosby said.

The Penguins led, 2-1, after two periods, but Bergenheim took a feed from Frans Nielsen and ripped a wrister just inside the far post to tie the game 1:24 into the third.

The Islanders had several quality chances to go ahead, but Johnson continued to make several point blank saves and keep the game tied. However, New York was finally able to grab the lead at 13:48. Freddy Meyer's wrist shot from the left point hit Johnson up high, and, after the rebound couldn't be controlled, Tavares had a easy tap-in to make it a 3-2 game.

Pittsburgh pulled the goaltender in favor of the extra attacker in the waning moments but was unable to get the equalizer.

Bailey put home a Mark Streit rebound to open the scoring 9:05 into the first period, but Malkin squeezed a backhander past Roloson from in close to even the contest with 2:38 remaining.

Pittsburgh went in front, 2-1, 7:12 into the second. Jordan Staal's wrist shot from the right circle was stopped by Roloson, but a hustling Cooke went hard to the net and batted in the rebound.

Penguins forward Tyler Kennedy (groin) and defenseman Kris Letang (shoulder) remained out of the lineup and are listed as day-to-day...Pittsburgh posted a 4-3 shootout win over the Isles when the teams met at the Coliseum back on October 3. Despite the loss, the Pens have taken seven of nine in the series overall.