PITTSBURGH — The Islanders keep flirting with being in the playoff race, sticking around the edge enough that you can’t quite say they are out even when nearly everything about them says they ought to be.
When it comes time to commit, though, this on-again, off-again relationship always seems to revert to mediocrity.
Or at least it did.
Maybe, just maybe, the Islanders seized their chance at making this real on Tuesday night.
A second straight third-period rally, this one to seize a 4-2 win over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, put the Isles ahead of the Bruins and tied them with Columbus in the standings, but it’s the chance to start another winning streak that’s really tantalizing.
The Islanders have been a streaky club dating back to mid-January, when they won seven in a row.
There would be no better time to get things going again than now, when the underwhelming Eastern wild-card race is crying out for someone to get hot.
If that someone ends up being the Islanders, this could be a third straight season with an improbable rally into the postseason.
This was not as easy a game as it looked at first glance, with the Penguins coming in holding a four-game winning streak of their own and Alexander Romanov — the Islanders’ best defenseman all year — up in the press box after coming down ill Monday night.
The rotten injury luck has indeed extended to sickness, with viruses going around the room for the duration of the year, affecting Adam Boqvist on Tuesday as well as Romanov.
Still, since returning from an awful trip to California, the Islanders have earned points in three straight games, and just as importantly, they’ve been deserving.
Just like Sunday, the Islanders appeared to have the edge at times early in Tuesday’s match, but it looked like a failure to create and finish Grade-A chances would doom them, down 2-0 after two periods.
Just like Sunday, they put it all together just in time.
There was no messing around in this third period, with Kyle Palmieri getting on the rush and putting one past Tristan Jarry just 17 seconds in to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-1.
Barely five minutes later, Noah Dobson — the hero Sunday — was at the crease to make a diving play and stuff in Bo Horvat’s rebound to tie the game.
On Tuesday, the hero would be Pierre Engvall. With the Islanders facing some pressure after tying the game — including a Connor Dewar two-on-one chance that required Ilya Sorokin to get to the backdoor in time off Evgeni Malkin’s feed — Engvall chased down Dobson’s chip up the ice and slid it past Jarry before the goalie knew what had happened.
And just like Sunday, Simon Holmstrom’e empty-netter sealed it.
Joona Koppanen had given the Penguins the lead 4:40 into the game on Pittsburgh’s first scoring chance of the night, tipping in Vladislav Kolyachonok’s shot from the point.
That, and Sidney Crosby’s goal from below the right dot at 19:45 of the first, sandwiched a period over which the Islanders consistently got up ice and consistently did nothing with it.
Coach Patrick Roy’s failed challenge for goaltender interference on Crosby’s goal, with Toronto determining that Rickard Rakell’s skates were outside the crease while the Swede was screening Ilya Sorokin, only added to the Islanders’ recent woes with the inconsistently enforced rule.
Though the Penguins failed to score on the ensuing power play, the Islanders’ own ongoing disaster at five-on-four continued, with the club moving to 0-for-18 on the man advantage since beating San Jose the day after the trade deadline.
And still, they walked out with two points in hand, playoff momentum very much intact.
