Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) looks up at the scoreboard as the New York Islanders celebrate a goal by Simon Holmstrom, third from left, during the third period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — Simon Holmstrom scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, Ilya Sorokin stopped Sidney Crosby on a late penalty shot and the playoff-bound New York Islanders edged the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 on Wednesday night.

Samuel Bolduc and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist, and Casey Cizikas and Kyle Palmieri also scored for the Islanders, who ended the regular season having won eight of their last nine (8-0-1). Ruslan Iskhakov had his first NHL assist in his debut.

Sorokin finished with 39 saves, including one on Crosby in the final minute when the Penguins were awarded a penalty shot.

“It’s like a dream,” Sorokin said. “Good moment for me.”

The Islanders, who finished third in the Metropolitan Division, open the playoffs Saturday at Carolina.

“Playoffs are always another level, a different animal,” Nelson said. “They (Carolina) have a great team. They’ve been playing great all year.”

Pittsburgh’s Jeff Carter had a goal in what was likely his final game in the NHL. Rickard Rakell, Evgeni Malkin and Valtteri Puustinen also scored for the Penguins. Crosby had two assists and ended the season with 94 points — 42 goals and 52 assists.

“I’m going to be a dad,” the 39-year-old Carter said on what’s next for him. “You miss a lot being a hockey player — you’re in and out in a way. … My family sacrificed a lot for me to live out my dream. I’m going to be home and be a dad and then figure it out from there.”

Alex Nedeljkovic made 27 saves, but the Penguins failed to reach the postseason for the second straight season.

With the game tied at 4, Holmstrom wired a wrist shot from the faceoff circle past the blocker of Nedeljkovic and the Islanders regained a one-goal lead at 14:27 of the third period.

“You just want to make sure you play the right way,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said of playing a game that was meaningless to the standings. “You don’t want to develop bad habits. That’s what I love about this group — there are so many vets on this team and they knew it was important to play the right way and that’s what the guys did.”

Holmstrom’s goal came after Carter finished a feed from Crosby to tie it at 4 at 10:56 of the third.

Nelson finished a pretty feed from Holmstrom to open the scoring at 4:56 of the first period.

Rakell evened it at 1 when he beat Sorokin with a soft wrister near the blue line late in the first.

Penguins took their first lead when Crosby found Malkin near the far post as Pittsburgh capitalized on the power play. The goal was reviewed for a kicking motion, but was ruled a good goal, per the officials.

Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov craftily kept the puck in the offensive zone and fired a shot that Cizikas redirected past Nedeljkovic to tie it at 2 at 13:19 of the second.

Puustinen gave Pittsburgh a short-lived one-goal advantage when he stole the puck from New York defenseman Adam Pelech and rifled a shot past Sorokin at 14:37.

Palmieri reached the 30-goal milestone for the second time in his NHL career, tying it at 3 in the final minute of the second.

“He’s got a great shot, plays hard,” Nelson said of Palmieri. “He’s a big part of our team on and off the ice. Offensively, he’s got great instincts, finds himself open, doesn’t need a whole lot of space.”

Bolduc’s shot inadvertently deflected off Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea and past Nedeljkovic to give the Islanders a 4-3 lead 1:36 into the third. Ryan Pulock and Iskhakov assisted on the go-ahead power-play goal.

NOTES: New York’s Jean-Gabriel Pageau left midway through the first and did not return. … Oliver Wahlstrom and Samuel Bolduc also returned to the Islanders’ lineup. Mathew Barzal, Pierre Engvall, Hudson Fasching and Anders Lee did not dress.

UP NEXT

Penguins: Head into the offseason.

Islanders: Visit Carolina on Saturday to begin their first-round playoff series.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona State has hired former Pittsburgh Steelers star Hines Ward as wide receivers coach. Ward replaces Ra’Shaad Samples, who left to become associate head coach and wide receivers coach at Oregon. Ward played for the Steelers from 1998-2011, winning two Super Bowls. He was the MVP of the Super Bowl in 2005 after the Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks. Ward had 12,083 receiving yards and 85 touchdowns during his career, earning four trips to the Pro Bowl. After his playing career, he had stints as Florida Atlantic’s receivers coach, was an offensive assistant for the New York Jets and the head coach of the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas last year.

Toronto Maple Leafs’ Jake McCabe (22) scores on Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (39) during overtime of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Monday, April 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

TORONTO (AP) — Jake McCabe scored at 1:30 of overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. Auston Matthews got his NHL-leading 65th goal of the season to go along with an assist, while Matthew Knies also scored for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves. Rickard Rakell and Drew O’Connor scored for Pittsburgh, which is now 6-0-3 over its last nine to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff race. Alex Nedeljkovic had 20 saves. The Penguins are tied with Detroit for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, and trail the New York Islanders by one point for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bryan Reynolds hit his 100th career home run as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers 7-4. Connor Joe and Jared Triolo had two hits and two RBIs for the Pirates as Pittsburgh improved to 9-2. That’s tied with the New York Yankees for the best record in the majors. Mitch Keller struck out nine in six innings to pick up his first win of the season. Detroit’s Reese Olson allowed six runs on nine hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. The Tigers have dropped four of five after starting 5-0.

Pittsburgh Pirates’ Connor Joe, right, celebrates his two-run home run with Jack Suwinski, who also scored, during the fifth inning of the team’s baseball game against Washington Nationals on Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates bounced right back from their first loss and lowest-scoring game of the season by producing a four-run first inning with the help of Rowdy Tellez’s two-run single to send them on their way to a 7-4 victory over the Washington Nationals. Connor Joe contributed his first homer of the season Thursday as Pittsburgh improved to 6-1. It was a 400-foot, two-run shot in the fifth. Tellez, Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Michael A. Taylor each had multiple hits. Martín Pérez allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings. CJ Abrams homered for the Nationals, who are 2-4.

Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson (65) celebrates with Michael Bunting (8) and Rickard Rakell (67) after scoring a goal against the New Jersey Devils during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each scored twice in Pittsburgh’s five-goal third period and the Penguins kept their playoff hopes alive, rallying for a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils. The Devils led 3-1 after two periods on goals by Timo Meier, Curtis Lazar and Jesper Bratt. Crosby and Malkin scored 67 seconds apart early in the third to tie the score. Rickard Rakell then put Pittsburgh ahead with 3:44 to play before Malkin scored again 21 seconds later. Crosby added an empty-net goal. Alex Nedeljkovic had 23 saves for the win.

Iowa guard Caitlin Clark (22) signs autographs for fans after Iowa defeated LSU in an Elite Eight round college basketball game during the NCAA Tournament, Monday, April 1, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

There were plenty of people at a movie theater in central Iowa on Monday night, though very few of them were watching an actual movie.

They were there to see Caitlin Clark.

And they weren’t alone. Not even close. Millions of people — the preliminary viewing numbers are expected sometime Tuesday — tuned in across America to watch a doubleheader of women’s basketball that captivated fans like perhaps never before. Clark and Iowa, in a national-title-game rematch against Angel Reese and LSU in one game; Paige Bueckers and perennial power UConn against freshman sensation JuJu Watkins and Southern California in the other.

The winners on the scoreboard: Iowa and UConn, which are heading to the Final Four in Cleveland this weekend. Perhaps the biggest winner: the women’s game, which had the NCAA Tournament stage all to itself on Monday night with massive star power delivering two games worthy of the over-the-top billing, and maybe, just maybe, adding a few new fans along the way.

“It’s a perfect opportunity to make the moment a movement,” said former Division I guard Isis Young, now a broadcaster and analyst. “Right now, women’s basketball is a movement … and the movement is really riding on the back of these players that we’re watching.”

And make no mistake: People were watching.

Baseball had a no-hitter on Monday night; Ronel Blanco’s gem for Houston against Toronto didn’t seem to capture attention the way Iowa-LSU and UConn-USC did. Phoenix’s Devin Booker scored 52 points, his league-high-tying third game of 50 or more this season; it happened while fellow NBA guards Damian Lillard and Patrick Beverley were tweeting about Watkins and Clark.

“Caitlin Clark the truth,” offered New York Knicks forward Josh Hart.

In homes, in sports bars from Seattle to Miami, even in NBA locker rooms, the women’s games Monday night had people staring at televisions. At a sports bar in Indianapolis, where the NBA’s Pacers were simultaneously playing maybe a block or so away, most TVs were on Iowa-LSU. Indiana’s WNBA team has the No. 1 pick in the draft this year. There’s no mystery about who it will select; the city knows Clark will soon be calling Indianapolis home.

“Not only did we have all the TVs on the game, we had them with the sound on, too,” said Clara Husson, a longtime basketball referee in New England. She missed her morning flight from Indianapolis to Boston after a weekend wedding and was given two options for a rescheduling opportunity — Monday night or Tuesday morning.

She chose Tuesday. Easy call. “I wasn’t missing these games,” she said.

This was not just another night for women’s basketball. The buzz built throughout the day. Rapper Travis Scott told his nearly 12 million followers on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that Monday “might be one for the illest days in women’s sports historyyyyyyy.” And Hall of Famer Magic Johnson let his 5.2 million followers know he considered Monday’s two-game slate “one of the best in history.”

The games didn’t disappoint. Bettors took notice, too — even a 4:15 p.m. start time in Las Vegas didn’t keep LSU-Iowa from setting records, a surefire gauge of whether people had interest.

“It is the biggest handle we’ve seen for a women’s game,” Jay Kornegay, executive vice president of race and sports operations at Westgate Las Vegas, said shortly before tipoff. “It’s already surpassed last year’s final with these two teams.”

Had the game been later in the day, Kornegay said, the numbers would have been even bigger.

South Carolina and North Carolina State reached the Final Four with wins on Sunday, a day when the women’s game was going head to head with men’s tournament games. Monday’s slate from an NCAA tourney perspective was all women, two games both featuring star players, not to mention a rematch of last year’s Iowa-LSU championship game that smashed records by drawing nearly 10 million viewers.

It was a perfect storm. Even in defeat, Reese understood the magnitude of the moment.

“I think it’s just great for the sport, just being able to be a part of history,” Reese said Monday night. “Like I said, no matter which way it went tonight, I know this was going to be a night for the ages. And just being able to be a part of history is great.”

Clark is the biggest name in the college game; she set the NCAA all-time scoring record earlier this season and has become a full-fledged celebrity, starring in national commercials and commanding media attention like no one else. After the Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, they tuned in for the end of the Iowa-LSU game.

“Caitlin Clark is stealing the show of basketball,” Celtics forward Sam Hauser said.

To Zoe Pawloski, Clark was just someone to share the weight room with. Pawloski used to swim for Iowa and her team would lift at the same time Clark’s team would work out.

“I never sat down and watched March Madness on TV until Caitlin Clark,” said Pawloski, who watched the game with a few dozen other Iowa fans in a bar in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “It’s really cool how much she’s grown basketball, and people knowing Iowa the school makes me really happy. Iowa is on the map.”

Not a lot of people were at the movies in Waukee, Iowa, on Monday night. There probably won’t be a lot of moviegoers there on Friday, either — that’s when the women’s Final Four starts.

At The Palms Theater in Waukee, about 200 people showed up to watch Clark play on a 75-foot screen. It was a private party put together by Dowling Catholic High School, her alma mater. And let’s just say the game was far more popular than the movies on other screens.

“Not even close,” said Alison Meyer, the theater’s general manager. “Nope, nope, nope. It’s pretty big-time when you have an Iowa team playing, let alone somebody from our hometown.”

The games didn’t disappoint. The stars didn’t disappoint, either. Clark had 41 points and 12 assists, plus she tied a tournament record with nine 3-pointers. Reese had 17 points and 20 rebounds. Bueckers had 28 points and 10 rebounds. Watkins had 29 points and 10 rebounds.

“It’s been a great ride,” Watkins said.

And for the game, it was a great night.

___

AP Sports Writers Eric Olson in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Steve Reed in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Pittsburgh Pirates’ Henry Davis celebrates his double during the sixth inning of an opening-day baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, Monday, April 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates are 5-0 for the first time since 1983. They beat the Washington Nationals 8-4 on Monday with two run-scoring hits from Connor Joe, including a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning. Michael A. Taylor, a former member of the Nationals, had three hits, and Bryan Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen, Alika Williams and Henry Davis delivered two apiece. Reynolds stretched his on-base streak to 33 consecutive games dating to last season and tacked on a two-run double in the ninth. Pittsburgh remained unbeaten in 2024, all on the road, following a four-game sweep at Miami to begin the season. Washington’s Riley Adams made it 3-all with a two-run homer in the seventh.

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedelkovic makes a save during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers on Monday, April 1, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie)

NEW YORK (AP) — Sidney Crosby had two goals and an assist and Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat New York 5-2, snapping the Rangers’ five-game winning streak. Bryan Rust also scored twice and Emil Bemstrom added a goal for Pittsburgh, which ended a four-game losing streak in New York and improved to 14-9-3 in its last 26 games against Rangers. The Penguins lost both previous games this season at home against the first-place Rangers and were making their lone appearance at Madison Square Garden. Kaapo Kakko and Jack Roslovic scored goals for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin finished with 16 saves.