|
PITTSBURGH -- On Monday night, Pittsburgh Penguins coach
Michel Therrien thought so little of Ryan Whitney's play that he
said the defenseman "cost us the game." Three days later, New York Islanders coach Ted Nolan could have
thought Whitney played so well he cost New York the game. Whitney had two goals and Kris Letang scored the game-winner
with 3:39 to play as the Pittsburgh Penguins handed the Islanders
their sixth consecutive loss, 4-3 Thursday night. "He responded exactly the way I expected. Give him credit,"
said Therrien. "He upgraded his game not only offensively -- it is
great to get two goals tonight -- but defensively he was sharp. This
is what I want from him." Evgeni Malkin had three assists and Ryan Malone also scored for
the Penguins, who are 3-1-1 in their past five and tied
Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic Division. Mike Comrie had two goals and Frederick Meyer two assists for
the Islanders, who scored more than two goals for the first time in
six games. Therrien criticized Whitney after a 4-3 overtime loss in New
Jersey, telling reporters he was "not aggressive at all." There
was speculation Whitney would not dress for Thursday's game after
the Penguins recalled rookie defenseman Alex Goligoski the
following day. Goligoski was scratched, and Whitney turned in his third career
two-goal game and fourth career three-point outing. Whitney scored
9 minutes into the game and had three points by the midway point of
the game. "I was pretty excited after that first goal, and I think it's
pretty easy to figure out why," said Whitney, adding jokingly that
Therrien should call him out after every game. "Obviously, you
want to bounce back. It was nice to get on the board right there." After allowing the Islanders to tie it midway through the third,
the Penguins got the winner on an unassisted goal by Letang.
Skating down the right boards, the rookie defenseman flipped a
wrist shot that appeared to deflect off a defenseman's stick and
went over Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro's shoulder. "I just saw the goalie down and the defenseman was backing up
so I just tried to put it on net and make something happen," said
Letang, who scored his third of the season. The Islanders got the first goal 4:31 into the first with a
fluky goal when Penguins goalie Ty Conklin misplayed the puck on a
clearing attempt in the left-wing corner and was forced to watch
helplessly as Andy Hilbert collected it and fed Comrie for his 15th
goal of the season. Comrie's goal, his first in 11 games, was his
300th NHL point. The Islanders entered the game 17-2-4 when scoring first, but
the Penguins negated that less than 5 minutes later with their
first power-play goal. Seconds after DiPietro stopped Ryan Malone's
open shot, Whitney scored his 10th goal of the season after some
crisp passing by Malkin and Sykora. Malone gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead early in the second period
when he deflected a Whitney shot from the point out of mid-air and
between the pads of DiPietro. Malkin, who won only five of 21
faceoffs three nights earlier in a loss at New Jersey, won a
faceoff cleanly to begin the play. But the Islanders scored again 4 minutes later when Ruslan
Fedotenko beat Conklin on the glove side. Fedotenko was standing in
the right slot when he took a feed from Trent Hunter while on the
power play for his ninth of the season. "We wanted to make sure we worked, we competed and we had a
good effort, and those things happened tonight." New York coach
Ted Nolan said. "It's a game of mistakes, and we made one too many." Whitney's second came 11:33 into the second when he converted a
pass from Malkin, backhanding it past DiPietro to give the Penguins
a 3-2 lead. It was Pittsburgh's 10th power-play goal in their past
29 attempts at home. "We've got to shoot the puck, and we did that tonight,"
Whitney said. "I think we had seven shots on three power plays.
Our power play's been pretty good lately." Comrie's second tied it with 10:47 left during a power play.
With Richard Park stickhandling behind the net, Conklin shuffled
back and forth on his knees. Park fed Comrie, who was along the
goal line near the left-wing boards, and Comrie flipped a wrist
shot up over Conklin's right shoulder. "It gets more frustrating every game you lose," Comrie said.
"It's frustrating right now, we're close, but when you're close
you've just got to work hard." Malkin broke a tie with teammate Sidney Crosby for ninth place
in the NHL scoring race -- Crosby has missed the past eight games
with a high ankle sprain -- and has 66 points, seven behind league
leader Alexander Ovechkin of Washington. Malkin has eight points in
his past three games. Game notes
Each team was 2-for-3 on the power play. ... Sykora has
four points in his past three games. ... Mellon Arena was sold out
for the 40th consecutive game.
|
