Patchwork Penguins seize opportunity, beat Islanders

“Opportunity” — as an idea and as an idiom — is big for Mike Sullivan.

No matter if he is directing a lineup of future Hall of Famers or all-stars for a ho-hum midweek regular-season contest or Game 7 of a playoff series, he views that game as opportunity.

So even if the Pittsburgh Penguins coach was forced to deploy nearly two lines full of misfit forwards who have been waived or spent time in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, there was only one way for him to describe Saturday’s confrontation with the New York Islanders, a team they are chasing in the East Division.

“Every night is an opportunity,” Sullivan preached via video conference after the morning skate. “Every game is an opportunity for us to establish ourselves in a playoff position, and that’s how we have to look at it. This is a big game, this is an important game.

“But every night, regardless of who your opponent is, is an opportunity for us.”

The Penguins took full advantage of that opportunity. Scoring five goals on their first 11 shots, they beat the Islanders, 6-3, at PPG Paints Arena.

The victory gave the Penguins 46 points, two short of the second-place Islanders.

That tabulation was not overlooked by the Penguins following the game.

“They’re a team that we’re chasing in the standings,” said forward Bryan Rust, who recorded the Penguins’ first hat trick of the season. “They’re a team that plays hard defensively, plays hard all over the ice. We knew it wasn’t going to easy.”

It certainly looked easy at the start as the Penguins took a 1-0 lead 5 minutes, 48 seconds into regulation. Off a two-on-one rush, Penguins forward Sam Lafferty fed a pass from the left circle to the slot for forward Frederick Gaudreau who lifted a wrister for his first goal as a member of the team.

They made it a 2-0 advantage at 10:07 of the first period. Taking a pass above the left circle, forward Evan Rodrigues chucked a knuckler of a wrister past the blocker of goaltender Ilya Sorokin on the near side for his fourth goal of the season.

Consecutive power-play goals in the second period gave them a 4-0 lead.

First, 4:26 into the middle frame, forward Sidney Crosby collected his 14th goal with a backhander off a goalmouth scramble.

That was followed by Rust scoring his 12th less than two minutes later at the 6:18 mark. Off some precision passing, Rust ripped a wrister from the slot through Sorokin’s legs.

Sorokin was pulled in favor of Semyon Varlamov, but that did little to stymie the Penguins — or Rust, who scored at even strength about two minutes later at 8:21.

After Varlamov denied a one-timer by defenseman Kris Letang from the right point, Rust cleaned up the rebound above the crease with a backhander.

The Islanders made the game competitive with three consecutive goals.

First, forward Mathew Barzal broke through with a dazzling effort off the left wing and attacked the net, scoring his 10th goal with a wrister.

Third-period goals by Islanders forwards Anthony Beauvillier — his sixth on a rebound at the 5:23 mark — and Jordan Eberle, in a four-on-four sequence, at 17:33, made it a two-score game.

Rust completed his hat trick and secured victory at 19:18 of the third with an empty-net goal.

Tristan Jarry made 29 saves on 32 shots as the Penguins seized their opportunity to narrow the gap between them and the Islanders.

“That was a really big win for us because, obviously, we’re chasing them in the standings,” Lafferty said. “They’re a really good team. They play the game hard. They defend hard. You don’t get many odd-man rushes against them. We know every game against the Islanders is going to be a battle.”