When you reach this point in the season and you’re a team on the outside looking in, as the New York Islanders are, the best thing you can hope for is to play spoiler.
The Pittsburgh Penguins would have clinched a playoff spot with a regulation win Tuesday night, but instead, they fell in the shootout—to the Islanders. It was just the second time in eight tries that the Islanders won the shootout,
For the Penguins to clinch now, they’ll need to take two points in any fashion from the second half of this back-to-back.