Casey Cizikas posted his first two-goal game in more than three years Saturday night, leading the New York Islanders to a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opener of a back-to-back, home-and-home set in Elmont, N.Y.
The two-goal game was the sixth of Cizikas’ career and his first since March 20, 2021, when he scored twice against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 6-1 win.
Anders Lee also scored twice for the Islanders, who won for the fifth time in 11 games this month (5-5-1). Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Anthony Duclair also scored, and goalie Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves.
Michael Bunting, Noel Acciari and Richard Rakell scored for the Penguins, who fell to 9-4-1 since late November. Goalie Tristan Jarry recorded 28 saves.
Pageau won a faceoff to begin the sequence that ended with him opening the scoring off a feed from Mathew Barzal with 5:13 left in the first. Cizikas was whistled for interference just 12 seconds later to set up the power play that yielded Bunting’s goal with 3:57 remaining.
Duclair scored the first of three unanswered goals by the Islanders 5:39 into the second, when he took a feed from Kyle Palmieri and buried a shot under Jarry’s stick.
Lee was credited with a goal 2:57 later. The Islanders captain tried to put back his own shot, but the puck hit Penguins defenseman Kris Letang’s stick before Letang accidentally tapped the puck into the net while turning around in the crease.
Cizikas extended the lead to 4-1 at the 9:39 mark when Alexander Romanov’s shot form the blue line glanced off his stick as Cizikas dueled for position with Matt Grzelcyk.
The Penguins scored twice in the final 6:11 of the period. Sorokin stopped a shot by Matt Nieto, but Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson crashed into the goalie and he couldn’t smother the puck before Acciari shoveled it into the net.
With 3.7 seconds left, Rakell redirected Grzelcyk’s shot, which fluttered through Dobson’s legs and beyond Sorokin’s glove.
Cizikas capped his rare two-goal game with 5:17 left, when he outraced Rakell to a clearing pass by Simon Holmstrom and beat Jarry on a semi-breakaway. Lee added an empty-netter with 21.4 seconds remaining.
–Field Level Media
