Coming into their first round series against the Eastern Conference leading Pittsburgh Penguins, the New York Islanders were being counted out by many hockey pundits and fans alike across the National Hockey League and were looked at as perhaps the weakest club in the NHL postseason.
After their 5-0 loss to the Penguins in Game 1, those kind of feelings were warranted. The Islanders simply did not look ready to play, looked nervous and also looked like they were in awe of what the Penguins were doing on the ice.
Tonight in Game 2, however, things were much different for the team in white, blue and orange. The Islanders surprised many in the hockey world by taking Game 2 from the Penguins by a score of 4-3, despite two goals from Penguins' franchise forward Sidney Crosby.
When the Penguins were up 3-1 going into the second period, things, like they did in Game 1, looked bleak for the Islanders. The team was not getting the bounces they needed, was being dominated by Penguins' superstars Evgeni Malkin and Crosby and was getting shaky goaltending from their masked man Evgeni Nabokov.
After the first period, however, things changed in a big and positive way for the Isles. The team started generating a lot of scoring chances (outshot the Penguins 42-33 in the game), went hard to the net and as a result, were able to put the puck in behind Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury.
In the second and third period, the Isles got goals from Colin McDonald, Matt Martin and Kyle Okposo (game-winning goal). Night in and night out, these three forwards play the game the right way by playing tough, showing some offensive skill, driving hard to the net and contributing when they can.
In fact, it can be said that Okposo's first career fighting major with Penguins' defenseman Matt Niskanen in the second period was the turning point in the hockey game. Okposo took offense to Niskanen's hit on teammate Matt Moulson and decided that something needed to be done.
The club also got some terrific goaltending from Nabokov in the second and third periods. In those two periods combined, Nabokov ended up making 21 saves, many of the tough variety, to keep his team in the hockey game and give them a chance to get back into the tilt and win it.
Obviously, there is still a lot of hockey left to be played but with the series now knotted at 1-1, the potential is there for the Islanders to accomplish some great things in the rest of this series.
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