[Final] Pittsburgh Penguins 5, New York Islanders 2: Greiss ousted by surging Pens

Well, that went rather poorly.

The New York Islanders lost, and lost big, to a division rival that appears to be awakening -- and finding better luck, finally -- under a new coach. The Mike Sullivan-led Penguins are on a 4-1-1 run back into the Metro Group of Legits after thumping the Islanders and recent hero Thomas Greiss, 5-2.

Greiss, again starting for injured Jaroslav Halak, had been key to several recent Islanders wins. But against the team that employed him in 2014-15, he was torched for four goals on 26 shots in just over 30 minutes of action.

The Penguins came out flying and had a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. With that score standing at the halfway mark of the second, they reeled off two goals in 32 seconds -- the first on the power play, the second against the Isles power play -- to remove all doubt about the result and remove Greiss from the game. Sidney Crosby, now "hot" after a very tortured first third of this season, scored twice to make it 2-0 and later 3-0 to break the game open.

In relief, goalie Christopher Gibson attained his NHL debut, first goal allowed (to Patric Hornqvist) and first saves (16).

John Tavares finally got the Isles on the board late in the second period to deprive Marc-Andre Fleury of a shutout in his first game back from IR. And in another "well at least that's done" footnote, Nick Leddy finally notched his first goal of the season with under a minute to go in the game.

The Isles don't have long to lick their wounds after giving life to a frequent division rival. They play again Sunday night at home to the West-leading Dallas Stars.

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