The New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins square off in a battle for second place in the Metropolitan Division when they face each other in Elmont, N.Y., on Monday.
As the clubs meet with one point separating them, the Islanders (42-27-5, 89 points) are on a mini two-game winning streak, and the Penguins (36-21-16, 88 points) are battling double trouble — an uneven stretch of games without two of their offensive catalysts.
The Islanders are coming off a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday, when they erased a two-goal deficit by scoring five goals in the second period.
“The rest of the games are playoff games,” Islanders forward Bo Horvat said. “They’re big games for us, big points, and we need all the wins we can get.”
New York has won three of its last four games, with positive signs all over.
Brayden Schenn, acquired from the St. Louis Blues at the trade deadline, scored a goal in a three-point game Saturday, his first multi-point performance since the move.
Matthew Schaefer, the rising star drafted first overall last summer, collected a pair of assists to tie the team record for points by a rookie defenseman (56, set by Stefan Persson in 1977-78).
With the likes of Horvat and Mat Barzal held off the scoresheet for New York, Marc Gatcomb emerged to snap a 36-game goal drought.
“We just keep sticking to the gameplan,” Gatcomb said. “We’ve been great with comebacks and stuff like that. We’ve been staying resilient. I think the main focus was just getting pucks on net. We got some good bounces there, and they just started going in.”
The Penguins, meanwhile, have lost three of four games, with the latest setback a 6-3 home loss at the hands of the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
Pittsburgh surrendered leads of 1-0 and 2-1 en route to the defeat, although the game was not as one-sided as the final score indicated. Dallas netted a pair of empty-net goals after the Penguins made it a 4-3 affair midway through the final period.
“We had a great start,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “I thought we were in their face. We had some really good shifts. Got into penalty trouble. I think that hurt us. I don’t think we did a very good job of playing hard and simple to get that momentum back on our side.”
The Penguins are hoping for reinforcements to turn their fortunes in a hurry. Captain and leading scorer Sidney Crosby missed the Dallas game due to a lower-body injury. Evgeni Malkin has missed three games due to an upper-body issue.
They both practiced Sunday without contact jerseys, which bodes well.
“Guys have to take on different responsibilities, different minutes, you know, from maybe what they’ve had in the past,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “Obviously, with Sid and with Geno, not one person is going to go in there and suddenly replace them. All these things have to be done by committee.”
Defenseman Erik Karlsson has elevated his play of late. Karlsson has posted consecutive games with one goal and two assists. He has netted two or more points in nine March games and collected 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) in 15 games this month.
