Eberle scores twice as Islanders top Pens

*Photo from Bleacher Report*

   Jordan Eberle sure had himself a night. Eberle scored twice, Anders Lee scored on the power play, and the New York Islanders topped the division rival Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday with a 4-3 win, snapping their 5 game losing streak. 

   Eberle started the scoring at 10:22 of the first, giving the Islanders a 1-0 lead. After PO Joseph tied it for the Penguins, Eberle scored again to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead after one period. In the second period, Evgeni Malkin scored the lone goal to tie things up at two apiece. In the 3rd period, Jake Guentzel scored to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead, but then Cal Clutterbuck and Lee scored to give the Islanders a 4-3 win.

   Islanders coach Barry Trotz praised the power play, which delivered the game winning goal, at the end of the game, saying that "That may have been one of our best power plays. They had a really good attack mentality, retrievals and that was huge. We needed our special teams to come up huge at an important time, we needed a response after giving up the lead."

   Semyon Varlamov faced 31 shots in the game, stopping 28 of them as the Islanders improved to 4-4-2 on the season, sitting at 6th place in the NHL's east division. On the other side, Tristan Jarry stopped 22 of the 26 shots that came his way in the loss, as the Penguins fell to 5-5-1, sitting in 4th in the east division behind the rival Washington Capitals. 

   Penguins coach Mike Sullivan talked about the unfortunate 3rd period for the Penguins, saying that "When you look at the third and fourth goals, I thought we could have done a better job controlling circumstances so that those types of events don't happen. That, for me, is the lesson. We just got to make sure we don't give our opponents easy opportunities to score by making sure we have an awareness."

   The Islanders head just up the highway into Manhattan to face the New York Rangers on Monday night, where Varlamov is expected to get the start for the Isles. The Penguins don't play until Thursday, where they face the Islanders again, and Jarry is expected to start.