Penguins explode for 5 goals in 2nd period, rally past Islanders in crucial Metropolitan clash

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Anthony Mantha and Rickard Rakell each scored twice, and the Pittsburgh Penguins scored five goals in the second period en route to an 8-3 come-from-behind win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Monday.

Mantha leads Pittsburgh with 29 goals, the most by a Penguins player in their first season with the franchise since Petr Sykora scored 28 in 2007-08.

“It means a lot,” Mantha said about leading the team in goals. “Last year, I battled through a lot. The confidence was there coming in here. No matter what, I knew I had more. Here I am just trying to contribute. And I mean, the guys on this team have had my back, the coaching staff had my back, from day one, so it's awesome to have results, too.”

Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist, and Justin Brazeau had three assists for the Penguins (37-21-16), who have won two of their past three. Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Parker Wotherspoon each had two assists, and Mantha also had an assist. Arturs Silovs made 20 saves.

Pittsburgh moved one point ahead of New York for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist, and Adam Boqvist and Calum Ritchie each had two assists for the Islanders (42-28-5), who had won three of four and finished 3-2-0 on a five-game homestand.

Ilya Sorokin allowed seven goals on 29 shots before being replaced at 7:54 of the third period by David Rittich, who made two saves.

“We were just awful defensively,” New York defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “[We allowed] guys behind us, breakaways, losing puck battles ... halfway through that period, we were just awful defensively.”

Anders Lee gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 1:27 of the second period. Boqvist's wrist shot from the blue line bounced off the end boards to Lee, who backhanded the puck past the left pad of Silovs at the right post.

Barzal made it 2-0 at 2:56, skating into the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 and burying a wrist shot from the right face-off circle to the far side for his first goal in 10 games.

Elmer Soderblom cut the deficit to 2-1 at 6:41 when he lifted the puck over a sprawling Sorokin from in front during a goal-mouth scramble.

Brayden Schenn pushed the lead to 3-1 at 9:17. Barzal put a shot on net from the left circle, and Schenn chipped the rebound over Silovs' glove as he glided through the slot.

The Penguins then scored four goals in a 6:17 span to take control of the game.

“The start of the second period, we got away from the things that I liked in the first a little bit,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “Just some of the chances that we gave, just time and space, numbers. We've been in situations where we’ve been down before, and there's a lot of belief in this group that we can kind of settle things down and put together some shifts where momentum can start to come our way. You never know where it's going to come from. ... Honestly, tonight, it was a lot of pucks behind them. We were spending more time [in their zone]. We were setting ourselves up for a good chance to be in the offensive zone. I think that's when we were playing our best tonight.”

Rakell started the comeback with a short-handed goal at 11:01, deflecting Rust's pass through Sorokin's pads as he cut to the net to bring the Penguins to within 3-2.

“That was definitely a turning point in that game,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “But after that, we had a chance to get back in the game, and I think we didn't match the game as well as we did in the first half of the game. It could be [due to] line changes, or it could be losing battles in the corner. Our sticks were not as good. It’s things that we've been doing so well lately, and I guess we just had a bad one in the system.”

Ryan Shea tied it 3-3 at 13:29. Mantha sent a backhand pass from below the goal line to Shea in the left circle, where he put a one-timer into the top right corner off the post and in.

Mantha gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead just 1:06 later at 14:35. Brazeau chipped the puck to Mantha, who got behind the defense for a short breakaway and slid a backhand through Sorokin's five-hole.

Mantha then scored his second of the period at 17:18 to make it 5-3. He collected a cross-ice pass from Brazeau in the left circle, skated to the net and lifted a backhand shot past Sorokin's glove.

Avery Hayes extended it to 6-3 at 6:06 of the third period. Ben Kindel settled his own rebound and threw it out in front from behind the net, and Hayes scored with Sorokin out of position.

Rakell made it 7-3 with his second goal at 7:54. He chased Sorokin when a wrist shot from Brazeau deflected in off his stick as he battled on his way to the net.

Rust finished a snap shot from the slot for the 8-3 final at 16:16. Crosby recorded the 1,100th assist of his career on the play, becoming the eighth player in NHL history to reach the milestone. 

“It was a really important game to win,” Silovs said. “Guys delivered, even when we were trailing, scoring on the penalty kill, huge goal. And [we] just kept going and scoring more goals. ... We kept playing. We didn’t sit back [up 5-3]. We managed to score three more goals. You make a save. We keep going forward, attacking them, and scoring goals. We just kept working, trying to outwork them and trying to create more offense.”

NOTES: Crosby recorded his 514th career multipoint game, passing Marcel Dionne and Mark Messier for third-most in NHL history. He trails only Wayne Gretzky (824) and Jaromir Jagr (540). ... Pittsburgh recorded its sixth multigoal comeback of the season, which is the most in a campaign since 2017-18 (seven). ... The Penguins had at least 15 different players record a point in a game for the first time since March 27, 2022, when 16 skaters found the score sheet in a 11-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings.