Pens continue winning ways over Islanders: Tonight’s Post-Game Wrapup

PIT Goal Scorers: Chris Kunitz (3), James Neal (9)

NYI Goal Scorers: Frans Nielsen (2), Matt Martin (1)

Shootout Goal Scorers: PIT Evgeni Malkin

Goaltending Matchup: PIT Marc Andre Fleury (7-2-0) 17 saves on 19 shots (3 saves on 3 shots in shootout | NYI Evgeni Nabokov 30 saves on 32 Shots

Three Stars

1. Chris Kunitz – 1 Goal, 1 Assist, 2 Points, 22:02 TOI

2. Evgeni Malkin – 1 Assist, Game Winning Shootout Goal

3. Matt Martin – 1 Goal

Winning Streak at Five: Pittsburgh (8-2-2) extended their winning streak to five games, defeating the New York Islanders 3-2 in a shootout, the final game of the home and home series.

Marc Andre Fleury stopped all three Islanders shooters and Evgeni Malkin netted the game winner in the shootout, scoring his 9th career shootout goal.

Malkin beat Rick DiPietro with a back hand goal who replaced Evgeni Nabokov in the shootout.

When Trailing after Two: The win was Pittsburgh’s first in the regular season when trailing after two periods since April 3, 2010.

Fleury notches 7th win: With the win, Marc Andre Fleury improved to 7-2-0 on the season and 15-4-4 in his career vs New York. Fleury is 29-15 in his career in shootouts.

Dominance over Islanders: The Penguins have now won 12 straight games vs the Islanders at home. Pittsburgh is 17-2-2 in their last 21 games vs New York. Since the lockout, the Penguins are 29-9-6 vs New York.

8-0: Pittsburgh is 8-0 when scoring three or more goals this season.

3 Goals or Less: Defensively the Penguins had some breakdowns in front of the net and were careless at times with the puck in the neutral zone but have yet to give up more than three goals in any game this season.

The pairing of Deryk Engelland and Brooks Orpik were a combined minus-4 in the game. Both came into the game with +4 ratings.

36-for-37 on PK: Pittsburgh went 2-for-2 on the PK and are now 36-for-37 on the season and a perfect 35-for-35 in 5-on-4 situations. The Penguins have gone seven straight games without giving up a power play goal, killing off 20 straight penalties.

Improvement overall in special teams through 12 games from last season: Evgeni Malkin – Chris Kunitz and James Neal connected for a beautiful tic-tac-toe power goal in the third period for Neal’s 9th goal of the season.

Since the 2009-2010 season, Neal has 22 goals and 36 points in 36 October games.

Neal had a team-high 6 shots on goal and has 50 shots in 12 games this season.

The power play goal was Pittsburgh’s 10th on the season and the team is 10-for-51 this year after a 1-for-6 night.

Last season the Penguins were 8-for-60 after 12 games on the power play. 45-for-53 on the penalty kill after 12 games on the penalty kill. Seeing big improvement so far in special teams.

First Goal: The Penguins were unable score the first goal for the first time in five games but it seemed they did for a few seconds. Jordan Staal had a first period goal disallowed after Matt Cooke had contact with Nabokov.

Tidbits

*Pittsburgh outshot New York 13-2 in the second period.

*Kris Letang logged a team-high 30:16 of ice time and 8:49 on the power play

*Evgeni Malkin had a rare breakout game in the faceoff circle, winning 14 of 22 draws (63.6%). There is still a feeling around the team that when Malkin WANTS to win draws he can.

All four Penguin centermen were over 50% with Joe Vitale winning 7 of 8 draws, Jordan Staal going 9-for-17 and Richard Park winning 8 of 13 draws.

*There was no carryover from last season in the home and home series. The two teams combined for just 21 hits tonight.

Up Next: @ Toronto Maple Leafs (6-2-1) on 10/29/11. Toronto is coming off a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers tonight in the Rangers home opener.

Notes: The Penguins scratched Mark Letestu and Steve MacIntyre…..Forward Dustin Jeffrey continues to see limited ice time, collecting under 8 minutes of ice time…..