Penguins  6    Islanders  5

Recap: NY Islanders vs. Pittsburgh

Sports Network | April 11, 2010

Uniondale, NY (Sports Network) - Jordan Leopold scored in overtime to give Pittsburgh a 6-5 win over the Islanders and Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby scored twice to reach 51 goals and finish in a tie for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy on the final day of the regular season.

Crosby came in trailing both Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos by a single goal. Both his contemporaries were in action Sunday, and Stamkos managed an empty-net goal with 12.5 seconds left in a 3-1 win over Florida.

Crosby is the first Penguins player to win the Richard Trophy since the inception of the award in 1998-99, doing so with his first-ever 50-goal campaign.

It's the first time players tied for the award since 2003-04, when Jarome Iginla, Ilya Kovalchuk and Rick Nash each had 41 goals.

The top overall pick in 2005 also assisted on three goals for a five-point game to tie Ovechkin for second place on the scoring list with 109 -- three behind Vancouver's Henrik Sedin.

Evgeni Malkin also had two goals -- giving him 28 for the year -- and added two assists for the Penguins, who had already locked up the Eastern Conference's fourth seed entering Sunday and will play Ottawa in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The series starts Wednesday.

"The expectations are high within this room," Crosby said. "Having that familiarity with what we need to do is important. You always talk about experience, but that's really a big part of it, just knowing what's expected from each guy."

Brent Johnson got the start in place of starter Marc-Andre Fleury and stopped 33-of-38 shots.

The top overall pick in 2009, John Tavares, scored his 23rd and 24th goals of the season and added an assist to cap his rookie campaign in New York. Tavares finished in a tie with Matt Duchene of the Avalanche for the rookie lead in goals, and fell just a point shy of matching Duchene's 55 points among first-year players.

"I think we're really starting to find what works for us, what our identity is," Tavares said. "With the young group and veteran guys that are here to guide us, I think it should be an exciting time next year around this time."

Kyle Okposo, who had a goal and two assists, Jon Sim and Tavares reeled off consecutive goals in the third period to erase a 5-2 Pittsburgh lead and force overtime.

Dwayne Roloson allowed all six scores on 37 shots for the Islanders, who were thumped, 7-3, at Pittsburgh on Thursday and dropped a 7-1 test in New Jersey two days later. Martin Biron was abused for 11 scores in those two contests.

Malkin's second goal of the game on the power play gave the Pens a seemingly comfortable 5-2 lead after 40 minutes, but the Islanders stormed back for three in the third to tie it.

Okposo got the first off a right-wing feed from Mark Streit and Sim's tip-in 24 seconds later made it a one-goal game. Tavares came up with the equalizer on a redirection of Freddy Meyer's shot with 4:13 remaining in regulation.

Leopold buried the game-winner with 34.4 seconds left in overtime after Malkin feathered a pass through a pair of New York backcheckers into the left circle, ripping a shot clear of Roloson's glove.

Malkin slammed home a deflected puck for the game's first goal 3:09 in and Eric Godard poked in a loose puck to make it 2-0 a little more than three minutes later.

Crosby got his first of the game on a rush with Malkin, who set up the "Kid" for a one-timer in close at 17:03. Tavares' power-play goal snuck inside the left post just before the end of the period for a 3-1 score.

Crosby's second came on the breakaway, as he beat Roloson to the top right corner after Maxime Talbot took advantage of an Islanders turnover with a crisp outlet pass.

Matt Moulson and Malkin traded power-play markers to close out the second period.

Crosby becomes only the second Penguin ever to lead the NHL in goals, joining Mario Lemieux, who was the league goal-scoring champion three times (1987-88, 1988-89 and 1995-96)...Crosby is the eighth Penguin in history to hit the 50- goal mark, along with Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens, Rick Kehoe, Pierre Larouche, Jean Pronovost and Mike Bullard...The Penguins won five of the six matchups in the season series. Crosby had six goals and 11 assists in those games...New York ended 23-14-4 at Nassau Coliseum this season, while the Pens posted a 22-16-3 road record...Moulson potted his team-best 30th goal and Streit recorded three assists for New York...The Islanders finished the season with a 34-37-11 record, while the Pens closed the regular season 47-28-7.