Uniondale, NY

Brooks Orpik picked a perfect time to score his first goal of the season, doing it in overtime to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a series-clinching 4-3 win against the New York Islanders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals at Nassau Coliseum.

Evgeni Malkin gathered the puck behind the Islanders net and passed it to Tyler Kennedy near the goal line. Kennedy then fed Orpik at the left point and his long shot beat goalie Evgeni Nabokov for the game-winning tally at 7:46 of extra period.

"It's definitely a good feeling," Orpik said after recording his first goal of the season that ended a 106-game scoring drought. "There was a lot of traffic in front, so I just wanted to keep it short-side. Tyler made a great pass to just put it on the tape for me."

The Penguins advanced to the second round for the first time since 2010, where they will face the Ottawa Senators.

Goaltender Tomas Vokoun, who started Game 5 for the struggling Marc-Andre Fleury, made 35 saves for his second straight victory while Jarome Iginla, Paul Martin and Pascal Dupuis scored for the Penguins.

"We needed the win and we're glad we don't have to play them tomorrow," Vokoun said. "Give them a lot of credit. They played a great series and they played really hard. They're an up-and-coming good team. They gave us everything we could handle."

"We expected to win the series here," said Dupuis, who had five goals in the series. "We've lost the last three first-round series we were in, and this one feels great."

Nabokov recorded 17 saves while Hart Trophy finalist John Tavares, Colin McDonald and Michael Grabner scored for the Islanders, who left the ice to a thunderous ovation from the home crowd of 16,170.

"I think as an organization we gained some respect back," Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic said. "I was really happy to see the fans support us the way they did, and I hope this is just the start, just a stepping stone to next year."

Tavares scored his third goal of the series to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead in the tfirst period but Iginla tied the game minutes later after recovering a miss by Crosby and smacking it past Nabokov.

McDonald put the Islanders ahead, 2-1, before the first quarter ended but Dupuis tied the game with 9:02 left in the second period. Joe Vitale raced into the Islanders' zone and snuck a feed that Dupuis quickly poked past Nabokov.

Grabner gave the Islanders their third lead 2:21 into the third period when he one-timed Keith Aucion's feed past Vokoun

However, the Penguins responded with Evgeni Malkin leading the way. The center carried the puck into the zone against four defenders before passing it to pass Martin, whose slap shot went past Nabokov to make it 3-3 with 5:16 left in regulation.

 

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Brooks Orpik's First Goal Lifts Penguins Past Islanders, into second round