"It wasn't an ideal sequence of events, and one day later Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro said making his season debut in the shootout of Thursday's 3-2 loss in Pittsburgh was "definitely a weird situation."

But DiPietro, the oft-injured franchise netminder, always has done what he can to take lemons and make lemonade.

"It's great, you get a chance to be a hero in a game like that," DiPietro said yesterday. "Spots like that [are] the reason we play the game and get you excited. It was a great opportunity, but it's unfortunate he [Evgeni Malkin] slipped one under my pad and we couldn't get that extra point.""