![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774951478_782_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA defensive performance like this just won\u2019t do in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
If the Islanders, who squandered two, two-goal leads to the Penguins, make it. They certainly struggled through this potential postseason preview allowing a season-high in goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just awful defensively,\u201d defenseman Ryan Pulock said. \u201cGuys behind us, breakaways, losing puck battles.”<\/p>\n
The Penguins, with a five-goal second period and seven straight goals overall as they frequently found themselves on odd-man rushes, breezed into second place in the Metropolitan Division with an 8-3 win on Monday night at UBS Arena. The Islanders, concluding a 3-2-0 homestand, dropped to third, only one point back but having played one extra game and they are also just one point ahead of the fourth-place Blue Jackets, who have also played one fewer game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave 11 chances in that second period,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cThat was probably one of our worst games defensively in a while. We can\u2019t give that many chances and think we\u2019re going to win hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Penguins held a 23-6 edge in high-danger chances skating five-on-five. That included a 13-1 discrepancy in the second period.<\/p>\n
The Islanders (42-28-5) conclude a back-to-back in Buffalo on Tuesday night. It will be interesting to see if Roy turns back to Ilya Sorokin, who allowed seven goals on 28 shots, or gives the crucial start to struggling backup David Rittich (14-9-3, 2.78 goals-against average, .894 save percentage).<\/p>\n
Roy said no decision had been made immediately after Monday\u2019s debacle as he and the coaching staff wanted to talk to Sorokin and then discuss it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been so good for us and we can\u2019t play like that in front of him,\u201d Kyle MacLean said of Sorokin, a leading candidate to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top goalie. \u201cHe deserves better.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a clue to Roy\u2019s decision might be gleaned from Sorokin\u2019s previous shaky start as he allowed six goals in a 7-3 loss in Montreal on March 21 before also being pulled in the third period in favor of Rittich. But Roy went back to Sorokin the next night and he made 26 saves in a crucial 1-0 win over the visiting Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n
Sorokin, who received encouragement and consolation from goalie coach Sergei Naumovs in the postgame dressing room, said he was not looking back on that experience, which marked the first time he\u2019d started back-to-back games this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new game,\u201d Sorokin said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what will happen in a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Penguins (37-21-16), who got 20 saves from Arturs Silovs, had Sidney Crosby (two assists) back in the lineup after he missed one game with a lower-body issue but an upper-body injury kept fellow future Hall of Famer Evgeni Malkin sidelined for the fourth straight match.<\/p>\n
Still, 15 different Penguins notched at least one point with Anthony Mantha and Rickard Rakell both scoring twice and Justin Brazeau adding three assists.<\/p>\n
The Penguins needed just three minutes, 34 seconds to overcome the Islanders\u2019 second two-goal advantage as they closed the second period with four straight tallies for a 5-3 lead.<\/p>\n
Mathew Barzal, who had made it 2-0 at 2:56 of the second period by snapping a nine-game goal drought, found Brayden Schenn at the right post for a 3-1 lead at 9:17.<\/p>\n
But Rakell\u2019s shorthanded tip of Bryan Rust\u2019s feed started the Penguins\u2019 rally at 11:01.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a turning point in that game,\u201d Roy said. \u201cBut, after that, we had the chance to get back in the game and we didn\u2019t match the game as well as we did in the first half of the game. It could be a line change or losing battles in the corner. Our stick was not as good and it\u2019s things that we\u2019ve been doing so well lately. I guess we just had a bad one in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defenseman Ryan Shea connected on a one-timer at 13:29 and Mantha got to the crease to put the Penguins ahead at 14:35.<\/p>\n
Anders Lee\u2019s power-play goal at the crease opened the scoring at 1:27 of the second period.<\/p>\n
Avery Hayes made it 6-3 at 6:06 of the third period to finish a three-on-one rush after Sorokin stopped the first two shots. Rakell ended Sorokin\u2019s outing with a seventh goal at 7:54.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we did,\u201d Pulock said. \u201cWe know what\u2019s wrong. We know what we need to do to play the right way and that\u2019s regrouping mentally for [Tuesday]. That\u2019s all that matters right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\tAndrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John\u2019s and MLB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A defensive performance like this just won\u2019t do in the playoffs. If the Islanders, who squandered two, two-goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[19698,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-532582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-gamer","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116323228830590280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}