Islanders score late after blowing lead to Penguins

NEW YORK -- Anders Lee scored a tiebreaking goal with 27 seconds left to help the New York Islanders defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 at Barclays Center on Wednesday.
Lee redirected Thomas Hickey's shot past goalie Matt Murray after New York blew a 3-0 lead in the third period.

Nikolay Kulemin scored an empty-net goal with 24 seconds left.
The two goals in three seconds tied the NHL record for fastest by one team (St. Louis Eagles, March 12, 1935; Minnesota Wild, Jan. 21, 2004).
WATCH: All Penguins vs. Islanders highlights
Johnny Boychuk, Jason Chimera and Casey Cizikas scored, and Thomas Greiss made 31 saves for New York (8-10-4).
"For me, it was great to see the resiliency in the guys," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. "That's what we focus on."
Conor Sheary, Justin Schultz and Evgeni Malkin scored in less than 13 minutes for Pittsburgh (13-7-3). Murray made 25 saves.
Boychuk made it 1-0 with a one-timer from the top of the right circle with 13 seconds remaining in the first period. Chimera scored 2:10 into the second period when Scott Mayfield's wrist shot from the point went off Chimera's skate and then Murray's before trickling over the goal line to make it 2-0.

Cizikas gave the Islanders a 3-0 lead at 17:21. Mayfield's backhand hit Penguins forward Bryan Rust and went to Cizikas at the edge of the crease for an easy tap-in.
Sheary made it 3-1 32 seconds into the third period. Sidney Crosby passed in front to Patric Hornqvist, whose one-timer was stopped by Greiss. Sheary scored on the rebound.
Schultz made it 3-2 with 9:20 remaining when he roofed a wrist shot over Greiss for his first goal of the season. Malkin tied it 3-3 2:28 later when he took a pass from Brian Dumoulin and beat Greiss from the slot.
"Obviously there were momentum swings throughout the course of the game," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "The second period, I thought we were on our heels. It's hard to grab momentum when you're in the penalty box that much (three penalties in 2:30), so it takes certain people out of the game that don't kill penalties. It overtaxes other guys that are killing them, so I think that was the case of the second period. Obviously, we were real encouraged with how we battled back."

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Goal of the game

Lee used his 6-foot-3 frame to his advantage by parking himself in front of the net, where he was in perfect position to deflect Hickey's low shot past Murray.
"You play a little bit more loose, you play a little bit more with confidence, and you're seeing the puck better," said Lee, who has four of his five goals in the past four games. "When you do that, things go in for you."

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Save of the game

Murray dove across his crease and somehow gloved a wrist shot by John Tavares, who was alone at the right post while the Islanders were on a two-man advantage with 11:05 left in the second period.

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Highlight of the game

Dumoulin drew two defenders toward him in the right circle, allowing Malkin to be left alone for the tying goal.

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Unsung moment of the game

In the final moments of the second period, Greiss calmly handled a snap shot by Schultz from the right circle to preserve the 3-0 lead, a save that meant more than anyone anticipated at the time.

They said it

"It's funny … you work your [rear end] off, you get so many chances, and then one goes in like that. It's a funny game sometimes. More importantly we got the win, which was huge." -- Islanders forward Jason Chimera

"I know scoring is down in the League, but one or two goals aren't [going to] cut it for any of our goalies, it's just not fair. To go out there and get four with their goalie in, that's huge. That's a guy that hasn't given up too many goals. Hopefully that's the start of something." -- Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey
"We've got to bury our chances. Some nights you're going to have a ton of them. I think tonight, we had a number of really good ones. They didn't come in bunches the first two periods necessarily, but we had to kill six minutes of penalties in the second and sometimes the game dictates that and you've got to be able to capitalize, I think, just putting the puck in the net. But we stuck with it and the pucks eventually went in." -- Penguins captain Sidney Crosby

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Need to know

Hornqvist returned after missing six games with a concussion. … It's the first time the Islanders have won two in a row since Oct. 21 and 23. … Mayfield had his first two NHL assists, in his 13th game. … Pittsburgh was two men short for a full two minutes before the midway point of the second period. New York had three shots on goal and did not score. … The NHL record for fastest two goals is two seconds (Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, Jan. 5, 2016; St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins, Dec. 19, 1987).

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What's next

Penguins: Host the Dallas Stars on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, ROOT, FS-SW+, NHL.TV)
Islanders: At the Washington Capitals on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-DC, MSG+, NHL.TV)