Charles LeClaire-USA Today Sports
For the New York Islanders, this lockout-shortened season has been the charm. It has been quite a while since they have seen a postseason and they are certainly making the most of it. Only diehard Islander fans would have thought they would have been going toe to toe with the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Pittsburgh Penguins, especially after game one.
The Islanders looked so pathetic on the ice in the opening contest that few thought the puck would have even dropped on a game 5. Yet, here they are, going back to the Steel City tied at two games apiece.
If the Penguins had a weakness in their impressive lineup, it was their number one goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury. Even in the five-nothing shutout in game 1, Fleury looked shaky, but the Islanders weren’t able to capitalize. However, after taking the second game from the Penguins on their home ice, it was clear the Islanders were going to do whatever they could to get to Fleury and it didn’t take much. Quite frankly, the Penguins were very lucky to skate away from game three with a win in overtime in front of a very excited and intense group of Islander supporters at the Nassau Coliseum.
After the game-four loss, it was pretty obvious that there needed to be a change in the net for the Penguins. A win tonight for the Islanders would have put them in the driver’s seat and they would have liked nothing better than to pull off a Cinderella victory in front of their own crowd.
Sure enough, Fleury was riding the pine this evening and former Washington Capitals’ goalie Tomas Vokoun was in goal. Vokoun did not have a stellar year for the Capitals last season. He was traded to the Penguins in the off-season for a seventh-round draft pick and signed a two-year four-million-dollar deal before the lockout. This season, Vokoun was 25-17-2 for the Penguins.
The shakeup in net paid off for Sidney Crosby and company. After a scoreless first, the Penguins scored two goals just seconds apart. Crosby would add the icing to the cake and the Penguins would go to the dressing room with a comfortable three-goal cushion.
Kris Letang added a fourth on the power play in the third and the Islander’s Evgeni Nabokov would be pulled from goal. Nabokov allowed four goals on 27 shots.
However, as the Islanders have shown in this series, they may be down, but they’re not out.
Dawn Miller is a New Jersey Devils writer for Rant Sports. Follow her on Twitter, “Like” her on Facebook or add her to your network on Google.
