##########. PENS WIN.

Coming from this game, there are bigger things happening than Sidney Crosby having a 6-point night, Evgeni Malkin answering the Twitter call with a hat trick, or Brent Johnson returning from injury to keep his team in the game against a feisty Islanders team.

Sure, the Isles played hard. Sure, they came back.

A solid effort on the tail end of a back-to-back.

It's about time the Islanders did something.

The Pens will meet them again down the road somewhere.

We're by no means downplaying a win against a divisional opponent who is slowly creeping up the standings.

But all we can think about right now are those lonely hockey fans in red who are planning to grab something to eat at the Breezewood Truck Stop on their way to Pittsburgh.

Thursday night. Mellon Arena.

Early in the second, Malkin draws a penalty.

He easily could've gone off for holding that dude's stick.

During the PP, the Pens give up their 80th shorthanded breakaway in January.

But Brent Johnson is there to show a poke check and stack the pads.

Later on the same play, the Isles get caught for too many men.

The Pens still had a PP after the Malkin blast.

Frans Nielsen sets up Okposo with a great pass.

Okposo can't get the shot off 'cause Gogo gets the stick into him.

Penalty shot on its way.

Beej stops Okposo for the third time in a minute.

Pivotal play in the game.

Later, the Islanders were headed to the box again.

Sid finds himself in the slot with the puck.

The Islanders converge on him, and he somehow gets it over to the Road Dog. 3-0.

 

 

In celebration, Guerin doesn't use his left hand to do the bench thing.

Injury?

McKee goes off for tripping someone in front.

Talbot bulls to the net. Roloson jobs him.

The Pens kill off that McKee crap.

Andy Sutton cranks a slapper. What a shot. What a joke. 3-1.

About a minute after that, Crosby takes over the Islanders' zone.

He was everywhere and ends up picking up a loose puck. 4-1.

What a shift.

Then it went from an extreme high to an extreme low.

Like when you realize the condom broke.

25 seconds after Sid's goal, Freddy Meyer puts home a one-timer. 4-2.

Absolutely huge goal for the Isles.

That was it for the period pretty much.

As the third started, uncertainty reigned.

It felt like a Chernobyl was looming.

And the Islanders definitely came out as the hungrier team.

The puck takes a series of weird bounces.

Gonchar gets control, but Bailey lifts his stick.

Fleury wasn't in goal, so there goes the MAF Hunter joke. 4-3.

Mellon Arena turns into a Helen Keller convention after that goal.

The Pens get their feet under them and start catching up to the Isles.

Crowd wakes up when Orpik ruins Okposo around the blue line.

Okposo's name was called maybe 80 times this game, and he only shows up in the box score once.

Teams trade chances until the Isles come on the attack.

Richard Park trips Crosby then goes to the net and bangs home some trash. 4-4.

If this game wasn't chippy enough, the Park-Crosby thing took things to another level.

We are by no means the Mellon Arena Crowd police.

But last season, a LET'S GO PENS chant would've been started after that goal.

Crosby jobs Trent Hunter.

Then Cooke takes a run at Tavares in response to the Park-Crosby crap.

Cue Okposo's appearance in the box score.

He goes to the box for tripping Craig Adams.

And the Pens' suddenly frightening PP takes the ice.

The only reason Malkin has an open net there is because Goligoski had Roloson and the Isles perplexed.

Sweet, sweet moves to get into some open ice.

He spots Geno lurking in the tall grass. 5-4.

Malkin was excited for his first goal.

He was all business after this one.

The way this game was going, you knew the Isles were gonna get their own PP.

Cooke's the unlucky soul that heads to the box.

Okposo fails on a beautiful chance. What an unfortunate game for that joke.

Pens PK quietly went 3 for 3 in this game.

Beautiful. Huge kill.

It's hard to not have confidence in Brent Johnson making some big saves.

Down the stretch in the third, he was making all the stops.

The game was setting up to have a great ending.

You could already see the frenetic 6-on-5 on the horizon.

And then...

Dupes' agent on Twitter:

Sutton gets a 5-minute major and a game misconduct.

All this reminded us of was that game on the Island where Chris Simon stomped on Ruutu's leg and got a 5-minute major, giving the Pens the 5-minute PP late in the 3rd with a 3-2 lead, only to see the Islanders get like 3 shorthanded breakaways and like 10 shorthanded shots or something ridiculous.   Ryan Whitney scored in that game.

It was the same deal here. The Islanders had nothing to lose. They had to press the issue.

There were some scary moments. But nothing earth-shattering.

The Isles pull Roloson, giving both teams 5 skaters apiece.

Loose puck. Geno picks it up.

He has no thoughts of passing it.

 

 

GAME.

 

 

 

*Sorry some pics didn't get credited. GMail crashed.

Go Pens.