Okposo scores 4 goals, Islanders best Pens
NEW YORK — Even when the Islanders are down by two goals and getting victimized by the likes of Sidney Crosby and the Penguins’ power play, all is not lost. Not this team, not this season.
With his first career four-goal game, Kyle Okposo pulled the Islanders back from a 2-0 first-period deficit for a 6-3 win over the Penguins at Nassau Coliseum Friday night.
After a rocky start, the Islanders rallied to take a firmer hold of first place in the Metropolitan Division with 30 wins, increasing their lead to three points over the Penguins.
Okposo netted the Islanders’ opening goal when they trailed 2-0 in the first period, he scored early in the third when they trailed 3-2 and went on to score the next two goals to give them a 5-3 lead.
Okposo’s wrister off a pretty feed from Josh Bailey 11:51 into the third period gave the Islanders a 4-3 advantage.
In 34 career games against the Penguins, Okposo has 13 goals.
“I think you play well against certain teams,” he said. “I seem to have a little bit of puck luck for some reason. I get fired up to play these guys because they have such good players up there,” Okposo said. “It’s a tough test every time they come here or we go there and they’re fun games to play.”
It wasn’t terribly fun for the Islanders at the start. The Islanders came into the game with the fifth-worst penalty kill percentage in the NHL.
The Penguins came in as owners of the sixth-best power-play percentage.
Appropriately, about 11 minutes into the game, Chris Kunitz’s man-advantage shot from the right point was tipped in by Crosby past Jaroslav Halak for his first goal against the Islanders this season.
A minute and a half later, the Penguins, who’ve scored power-play goals in three straight games, got another one when David Perron’s slap shot bounced in through Halak’s legs for a 2-0 lead.
“It was probably one of the fastest games of the year,” coach Jack Capuano said. “It was a track meet and that wasn’t something that we wanted to get into with that team. We were resilient tonight. They got a couple of power plays early but this team never quits.”
With 3:09 left in the first period, John Tavares victimized Simon Despres near the goal, working inside and around the defender to move to the crease and feed Okposo, who tipped in the puck off his skate for his first goal.
It was Tavares’ 200th career assist.
Ryan Strome then scored on a nifty spin move on a rebound off Marc-Andre Fleury, netting the puck past two defenders and through Fleury’s legs for the equalizer 12:31 into the second period.
The lead didn’t last too long, though, as Crosby scored his second goal of the game on a delayed Travis Hamonic penalty with 4.4 seconds left in the period.
“We could have hung our heads and that could have been it,” Okposo said. “But I think we did a really good job sticking with it and playing our game in the third.”
Okposo epitomized that work ethic more than most. He’d never had a hat trick before, he said.
“Every time you see someone get one, you think, I’d like to have one of those in my back pocket,” Okposo said. “It was definitely rewarding for me.”
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