Pesky Islanders 'Pull Together' in Game 5 Win

If there were ever a night to call them the pesky Isles, it may have been Monday.
The Islanders were outshot 50-28, out-attempted 85-43 and led for exactly zero seconds in the 80:51 played in Game 5 at PPG Paints Arena.
What did they do? Win.

Josh Bailey
scored the double-OT winner 51 seconds
into the extra, extra frame, giving the Islanders a pair of 3-2 leads, one in the game and the other in their best-of-seven First Round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It was a character win for a team that has a lot of them, another night of bending instead of breaking and coming out the other side stronger.
"I was proud of the group for hanging in there," Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "When things aren't going well, or it's not going your way, or if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, your attitude can change and you can become real negative and you can sort of pull apart. What I liked about our group was that we pulled together."

After
a dominant win in Game 4
, the Islanders were in tough to start Game 5. The Penguins opened the scoring, but in a foreshadowing moment, Anthony Beauvillier scored with 54.4 seconds to play in the first period.
The Islanders resolve was really tested in the second period, where they were outshot 20-4 by the Penguins, managing to come out of the barrage down 2-1 thanks to a Herculean effort by Ilya Sorokin. Trotz says greatness is born of longevity, but Sorokin stole what is the first of hopefully many pivotal playoff games for the Islanders on Monday.
"The first two periods were not pretty and he allowed us to hang around," Trotz said. "It all goes up front on Ilya. We don't have a chance if he doesn't have an outstanding game in the first two periods.
They had taken a big punch from Pittsburgh and found themselves still very much in the game going into the third period, armed with the belief that they could come back, just like they did in a
4-3 OT win in Game 1
. They also had their Game 3 experience to fall back on, where they rallied twice, first from 3-1, then again from 4-3, putting a scare into the Pens, before ultimately falling 5-4.
By the time Jordan Eberle had sent the Islanders to OT, Trotz was feeling confident in his group. The veteran coach has plenty of rallies in his 20+ years of coaching - including a handful of dramatic ones from the Isles in his three-year tenure - and felt like his team had it in them to finish the job.
"We got stronger because it wasn't easy," Trotz said. "It wasn't going our way and instead of trying to shift the blame or anything we just dug in. That's to me what good teams do, when you're not at your best, you find a way to hang in there, find a way to win and that to me shows a lot of character to our group. I always complement our group on character and that's one of our strengths."

Trotz told his group that OT would be a test of who wanted it more. After getting shelled in regulation, the shots were a virtually even 9-8 for Pittsburgh in the extra frame, with the Islanders generating quality looks and looking comfortable in a nail biter. The Penguins wound up blinking first, with Tristan Jarry giving the puck away to Bailey, who skated in and scored his second-career OT winner, floating a puck over the out-of-position Penguins netminder.
"The one thing I know about this group of guys is that we left it all out there," said JG Pageau, who led Islanders' forwards with 24:38 TOI and nine hits. "It might not have been our prettiest one but to leave it all out there and to get rewarded for our work and to just stick with it is an amazing feeling."
It's too early to tell if Game 5 was a launching pad for what the Islanders hope to be another lengthy playoff run. It's also too early to celebrate since an even stiffer test awaits the Islanders on Wednesday, when Pittsburgh will be fighting for their lives.
But one thing is clear. After finding a way in Game 5 and leading a series 3-2 they haven't led a whole lot in, the Islanders can hang around with the best of them and have plenty of character.
"As far as character, if you don't have it you're not going to find a way to win," Bailey said. "We have lots in that room, we believe in ourselves. We can't stress enough how well Ilya played tonight, I think that really gave us confidence. Looking forward to the next one at home and trying to put our best foot forward."