Fleury & Pens hold off Isles

PITTSBURGH — All MarcAndre Fleury ever wants to do is give his team a chance to stay in the game. The Penguins’ goalie did that and more on Thursday against the Islanders.

Fleury had 31 of his 35 saves through two periods, keeping the game close and allowing Sidney Crosby to score the tiebreaking goal late in the third to lead the Penguins to a 4-2 victory.

“No one is going to feel sorry for us,” the Islanders’ Travis Hamonic said. “Frustrating result the past two games, but you move forward. We have to keep going. That’s all we can do.”

Hamonic and Shane Prince scored for the Islanders, who fell to 0-3-0 on the road. Jaroslav Halak finished with 31 saves.

Malkin broke a 1-1 tie with 7:12 left in the third as he took a pass from Kessel and pulled up ahead of Islanders defenseman Dennis Seidenberg be- fore placing a shot between Halak’s pads.

Prince, playing for the first time after missing five games with a lower-body injury, tied it again with 4:22 remaining. Fleury left the net to play a shot into the zone but the puck caromed off the boards to Prince, who put it into an empty net.

“I felt bad because I shouldn’t have come out of the net,” Fleury said.

Fleury faced just five shots in the third period while starting for the eighth straight game. Fleury won for the 19th time in his past 24 home starts and has given up two or fewer goals in five of the first six home games.

Patric Hornqvist, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel also scored for the defending champion Penguins.

“I know the guys are trying hard,” Fleury said. “I’m just trying to keep the score close and keep them ahead.”