New York Islanders Sweep Pittsburgh Penguins With 3-1 Game Four: 3 Takeaways

No Panic

The New York Islanders were as cool as a cucumber in game number four. The Penguins were facing elimination and would come out flying to keep their season alive. The Islanders knew that. The Penguins would play their hearts out in game four.

Of course, the crowd in Pittsburgh was right into it for the first time this series. They did their best Nassau Coliseum impression as they tried to rally their team.

It worked. The Penguins came out flying and scored within 30 seconds. Better yet was the fact that Jake Guentzel was the one who scored the goal.

It was exactly the start to an elimination game that the Pittsburgh Penguins would have wanted from their team.

But the New York Islanders just kept playing their game. They forechecked the Penguins, stayed as tight as possible defensively, and not soon after going down 1-0 the Islanders would get on the board.

After working the blueline, the puck is jammed loose by Mathew Barzal. Jordan Eberle picks it up and brings it across the neutral zone before feeding it back to Barzal.

Eberle and Barzal enter the zone with a 2on1 and flashes of 2017-18 danced in all of our heads the second Eberle got into position for the one-time. Tie game.

It’s now the third game in a row that the Pittsburgh Penguins score first but the New York Islanders stick to it and respond. Not once in this entire first-round did the Isles panic. They just stuck to what they knew and kept winning.