It's not last spring. Not by a long shot.
As much as the Islanders wanted to recreate their breakthrough run to the playoffs last season on Tuesday night against their first-round opponent, instead it was the Penguins reminding them who ultimately won that series, and why.
After being staked to a 2-0 first-period lead, the Islanders crumbled, and eventually fell, 3-2 in overtime, when Sidney Crosby scored a highlight-reel goal for the Penguins, stealing the puck from Thomas Vanek and then splitting Calvin de Haan and Travis Hamonic, tipping it over Anders Nilsson for the walk-off win.
This past May, the Islanders broke a six-season postseason drought with a second-half surge during the lockout-shortened season. That's the kind of play they have been talking about for the first third of this season — and the type of play that has eluded them.
"I know the excitement that was here, coming back for Game 3, for the fans they waited a long time for that," coach Jack Capuano said before the game about that first-round matchup, the Isles coming back tied with the top-seeded Penguins, one game a piece. "It was just — you remember what it was like. But for us, in the situation we're in now, it's a situation that we have to gain some traction, play the way we have to play and try to stay disciplined against this club."
The Islanders were not disciplined midway through the third, when they were up 2-1 and Aaron Ness took a mindless high-sticking penalty, giving the mighty Pittsburgh power play another chance to strike. Nevertheless, the Islanders got Frans Nielsen a shorthanded breakaway, which was first stopped by enigmatic goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, and then Nielsen was awarded a penalty shot — which was, again, stopped.
Because it was the only possible outcome, Crosby then scored 53 seconds later, still on the man-advantage, tying the game 2-2.
The Islanders (8-15-5) came in having lost six in a row — with just one loser's point in Saturday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Capitals — along with defeats in 11 of their past 13. The Metropolitan division-leading Penguins (19-9-1) had won three in a row and seven of their past 10.
The Penguins started the second period down 2-0, but they pushed back, as could have been expected. They held the play for most of the middle 20 minutes, and cut the lead to 2-1 on a power play with under a minute remaining when Chris Neal finished a great Evgeni Malkin pass from behind the net. It was almost surprising it took the Penguins No. 1-ranked power play three chances to convert on the Islanders last-ranked penalty kill, but the inevitable did eventually happen.
The first singsong chants of Fleury's name came just 40 seconds into the game, when the 13,915 in attendance picked up right where they left off last spring.
Fleury took it from there. With 9:53 gone by in the first, it was Okposo, that old Penguins nemesis, tossing a puck towards the front of the net, where John Tavares crashed into defenseman Kris Letang and the puck somehow wound up over the goal line, giving the Isles a 1-0 lead and giving Okposo his first goal in eight games, his seventh of the season.
It was just 3:02 later when the flashback to the playoffs was at its strongest, as Okposo took a hard slap shot from the top of the right circle, and Fleury was able to see it all the way. But instead of stopping it, the puck snuck underneath Fleury's glove hand and into the net, the lead stretching to 2-0.
With just over two minutes remaining the period, Okposo toyed with the single-period hat trick, chucking a backhand attempt on net that clanked off the far post. But it stayed out, the Islanders finished the first 20 minutes up 2-0, with Nilsson keeping the Penguins off the boards with 10 first-period saves.
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