Barzal, Lee, Bailey lead Islanders past Penguins, 5-1

Published Wednesday, December 28, 2022 | 12:10 p.m

Updated 5 hours, 43 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP) – Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee each scored twice, Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist and the New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Hudson Fasching and Brock Nelson each had two assists and Ilya Sorokin had 19 saves in his 100th NHL appearance. New York has won two in a row.

“That was a great game,” Barzal said. “It’s a great hockey team over there, it’s good to know we can compete with the best.”

Pierre-Olivier Joseph scored for Pittsburgh and Tristan Jarry made 38 saves, but the Penguins fell for the third time in four games after starting December with a seven-game winning streak.

The Islanders extended their lead to 4-1 with three goals in the middle frame.

Barzal scored his sixth goal of the season to give the Isles a 2-1 lead in the opening minute of the second period. The 25-year-old center deftly redirected Fasching’s shot from the slot past Jarry.

“It might have been the worst game of the year,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

Bailey buried a nice feed from Noah Dobson down the middle of the second.

Barzal capped the Islanders’ second three-goal game with 3:18 left. Fasching won a few battles behind the Penguins goalie and got the ball to Barzal’s stick before No. 13 fired a wrist shot into the top corner.

New York outscored Pittsburgh 20-4 in the second half

“The forwards did a good job of staying on top of them, taking away time and space,” Dobson said of his teammates. “They weren’t able to forecheck and we were able to keep good gaps. We have to move fast, when we play fast we are hard to deal with.”

Lee opened the scoring with his 12th of the season 1:03 into the first half. Penguins alternate captain Evegni Malkin threw the ball into the backcourt and Nelson set up the Islanders captain. New York improved to 13-4-0 when scoring first this season.

Joseph tied it at 1 with 4:47 left in the first half when he fired from the point past Sorokin.

“They’re a controlled team, you have to work for everything,” Jeff Carter said. “The level of competition could have been much higher than everyone else.”

Lee scored his second goal of the game when he deposited a jumper at 3:33 of the third period to extend the Isles’ lead to four goals.

“You can’t give these guys a lot of time or space,” Lee said. “You don’t want to keep them around, this is a talented team that has done quite well. We’ve seen them a lot and we know their ability to close a game very quickly.”

Islanders forward Oliver Wahlstrom left the game after suffering an upper-body injury on his first shift of the game and did not return. Wahlstrom delivered a big check on Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel early in the first period. Joseph, Ruhwedel’s defensive partner, rammed Wahlstrom’s head into the boards in an attempt to protect his teammate.

THE IRON MAN

Zach Parise played in his 118th consecutive Isles game and has played in every game since joining the team in October 2021 after the Minnesota Wild bought out the final four years of his contract in the summer of 2021. It’s the 24th streak long active in the NHL.

NEXT:

Isles: Host Columbus Thursday night.

Penguins: Host Detroit on Wednesday night.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports