Pens’ Young Guns Too Much for Isles

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Sergei Gonchar scored Pittsburgh’s third power-play goal 3:33 into overtime, and the Penguins used the kid tandem of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to beat the Islanders 4–3 last night.

Islanders captain Alexei Yashin was enjoying a three-point night, but he was in the penalty box when Gonchar took a pass from Ryan Whitney and ripped a shot in off the right post. Pittsburgh went 3-for-8 on the power play, using the advantage to take a 2–0 lead and then to win after falling behind in the second period.

Malkin scored his second goal in two NHL games to tie it at 3 in the third, and the 19-year-old Crosby had three assists to help Pittsburgh snap a twogame losing streak.

Crosby dug the puck out from behind the net and found Malkin with a pass near the right post. Malkin wasted no time in knocking a shot past surprised goalie Mike Dunham to tie it 8:08 into the third period.

After the Islanders fell behind 2–0 early in the period, Yashin scored his third of the season with 4:17 left to cut the deficit in half. He then earned the primary assists on power-play goals by Mike Sillinger and Jason Blake 1:09 apart.

But it wasn’t enough to give Dunham his third win in four starts in place of Rick DiPietro, who is nursing a groin injury. DiPietro, in the first month of a 15-year contract with New York, sat on the bench but is still a few days away from game action.

***

PREDATORS 4, DEVILS 3 Martin Erat scored the only goal in the shootout and Chris Mason stopped all three shots to lead the Nashville Predators to a 4–3 win over the New Jersey Devils last night.

The Predators blew a two-goal lead in the final 2:07 of regulation but still managed to win their fourth straight game. They completed a sweep of the New York-metropolitan area teams this week.

Paul Kariya set up first-period power-play goals by Jason Arnott and Erat and Scott Nichol tallied short-handed in the second for Nashville, which had eight shots on goals over the final two periods and the overtime.

Brian Gionta scored twice, including the tying goal with 11.6 seconds to go in regulation. Scott Gomez had the other goal for the Devils.

Mason finished with 30 saves filling in for Tomas Vokoun. He also stopped Zach Parise, Gionta, and Patrik Elias in the shootout. Erat scored on the Predators’ third attempt, snapping a shot over the glove of Scott Clemmensen, who had 15 saves in his first start of the year.

The Devils, who rallied from a threegoal third-period deficit at home earlier this season to beat Toronto 7–6 in a shootout, staged another comeback against the Predators, who beat the Islanders on Monday and the Rangers on Wednesday.


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