Isles 6 – Pens 4: Poor Goaltending, costly turnovers continue to plague Penguins as series is all tied up

ISLANDERS 6 – PENGUINS 4

John Tavares scored with 9:49 left in the third perod to break a 4-4 tie and the Penguins goaltending and defensive issues continued, as the series is now tied at 2-2 following a New York Islanders 6-4 win tonight at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Tavares goal told the story of how the Penguins have played over the last three games as Evgeni Malkin made an awful turnover inside his own zone, failing to make the simple play of going off the boards with the puck.

Costly turnovers inside their own end have been a consistent problem of late for the Penguins as has mediocre goaltending from Marc Andre Fleury who struggled again to shut the door in key situations and make basic saves at some points, giving up a number of poor goals tonight. New York scored 6 goals on 24 shots.

The Penguins have allowed 14 goals in their last three games and are lucky that they are not down 3-1 in the series.

Game 5 is Thursday night.

NYI 14:05 Brian Strait (1)

Assists: Lubomir Visnovsky, Casey Cizikas (NYI 1 – 0)

PIT 14:50 James Neal (1)

Assists: Evgeni Malkin, Jarome Iginla

2nd PERIOD

NYI 6:19 Mark Streit (1) (Power Play)

Assists: Travis Hamonic, John Tavares (NYI 2-1)

PIT 7:17 Evgeni Malkin (2)

Assists: Jarome Iginla, Marc-Andre Fleury (Tied 2-2)

PIT 11:03 Brandon Sutter (1)

Assists: Brenden Morrow, Matt Cooke (PIT 3-2)

NYI 18:36 Kyle Okposo (3)

Assists: Travis Hamonic, Mark Streit (Tied 3-3)

3rd PERIOD

PIT 0:41 Pascal Dupuis (4)

Assists: Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby (PIT 4-3)

NYI 4:30 Mark Streit (2)

Assists: Casey Cizikas, Brad Boyes (Tied 4-4)

NYI 10:11 John Tavares (2)

Assist: Brad Boyes (NYI 5-4)

NYI 18:44 Casey Cizikas (2)

Assists: Michael Grabner, Colin McDonald (NYI 6-4)