Pittsburgh Trips Up Isles
Hat tricks by Sykora and Dupuis lift Pens to 9-2 win

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By Joshua A. Bernstein

The Pittsburgh Penguins, powered by hat tricks from Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis, defeated the Islanders, 9-2, on Thursday night at Mellon Arena.

Miroslav Satan, Philippe Boucher and Evgeni Malkin also scored for Pittsburgh. Mark Streit and Andy Sutton tallied for the Islanders, who lost their fifth straight game and suffered their largest defeat of the season.

“It was an off night for everybody,” said Islanders Head Coach Scott Gordon. “I think we can just leave it at that.”
 
After Dupuis opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season early in the first period, the Islanders took three penalties in a two-minute span to give Pittsburgh two consecutive 5-on-3 power plays. The Penguins failed to score on their first 5-on-3, which lasted 1:07, but Satan found the back of the net on their second opportunity at 13:49.
 
The Islanders countered with a power-play goal of their own less than four minutes later. Trent Hunter dished to Doug Weight at the top of the blue line. After faking several shots, Weight found Streit on the right side. Streit then blasted the puck past rookie goaltender John Curry on the far side for his seventh goal of the season, and sixth power-play marker, at 17:29.
 
With the assist, Weight is now four points shy of 1,000 for his career.
 
The Penguins scored the next six goals to take an 8-1 lead.
 
After Sykora beat Joey MacDonald on the short side for his eighth goal of the season, Boucher took a 57-foot slap shot that deflected off Mike Sillinger’s stick and through MacDonald’s 5-hole for his first tally of the year.

Yann Danis replaced MacDonald at the start the second period, but it was more of the same for the Penguins. Malkin scored a power-play goal at 2:12 to make it 5-1, and Sykora rifled a one-timer with the man advantage that beat Danis through his 5-hole at 7:53 to make it 6-1.

“It’s tough. We were up against a team that was on a mission tonight,” said Gordon. “Their power play was on fire.”
 
Sykora completed his hat trick with another power-play tally at 15:42, while Dupuis scored his second goal of the evening with 31 seconds remaining in the middle frame to put the Pens on top, 8-1.
 
After Josh Bailey set up Sutton’s goal to make it 8-2, Dupuis capped his first-career hat trick at 16:48 of the third period to make the score 9-2.
 
Curry made his second career start in net for the Penguins, stopping 24 pucks for his second win. His only other victory came against the Islanders in a relief effort on November 26th. MacDonald had 15 saves in the loss, while Danis recorded 14 stops.
 
The Islanders went 1-for-5 on the power play, with five shots. The Penguins finished 3-for-11 with the man advantage, totaling 16 shots. Pittsburgh out-shot the Islanders overall, 38-26.
 
Three Stars of the Game:
1. Petr Sykora: scored his first career hat trick in his 871st game, added an assist
2. Pascal Dupuis: notched his first career hat trick in his 461st game, finished +4
3. Miroslav Satan: had a goal and two assists in 17:35 of ice time
Honorable Mention – Sidney Crosby: had three helpers and five shots, was +2
 
Slap Shots: Mike Sillinger led all Islanders with five shots…Mark Streit paced the team with 23:15 of ice time…Streit is now tied with Washington’s Mike Green for the NHL lead in power-play goals by a defenseman…Rookie Josh Bailey has seven assists in 15 games this season…Nine different Penguins had multiple points…Petr Sykora (3g, 1a) led all scorers with four points…After clearing waivers this morning, Jon Sim (healthy) was the Islanders’ lone scratch.
 
ISLANDERS
Goaltenders
35 Joey MacDonald
34 Yann Danis
 
Defensemen
2   Mark Streit - 32 Brendan Witt
25 Andy Sutton - 44 Freddy Meyer
14 Chris Campoli - 17 Thomas Pock
 
Forwards
20 Sean Bergenheim - 93 Doug Weight - 7 Trent Hunter
11 Andy Hilbert - 12 Josh Bailey - 13 Bill Guerin
10 Richard Park - 18 Mike Sillinger - 57 Blake Comeau
49 Mitch Fritz - 45 Nate Thompson - 28 Tim Jackman
 
 
PITTSBURGH
Goaltenders
1   John Curry
30 Dany Sabourin
 
Defensemen
4   Rob Scuderi - 44 Brooks Orpik
7   Mark Eaton - 58 Kris Letang
13 Alex Goligoski - 43 Philippe Boucher
 
Forwards
9   Pascal Dupuis - 87 Sidney Crosby - 81 Miroslav Satan
26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 17 Petr Sykora
24 Matt Cooke - 11 Jordan Staal - 25 Maxime Talbot
22 Jeff Taffe - 32 Christopher Minard - 63 Tim Wallace