Kessel, Letang score twice, Pens beat Isles

A renewed commitment to defence has the Pittsburgh Penguins back on track after a bumpy November.

The Penguins’ dynamic offence appears to have found its stride, too.

Kris Letang and Phil Kessel each scored twice, and the Penguins beat the New York Islanders 62 on Thursday night.

“Obviously, this year hasn’t started off the best for us, but we’re right in it,” Kessel said. “There’s a lot of hockey to play and we just gotta keep improving and getting better.”

Kessel, who also had two assists, tied Ed Olczyk, Scott Young and Brian Rolston for 10th alltime in career goals by an American-born player with 342. Letang’s two goals moved him in front of Larry Murphy for most multigoal home games for a Penguins’ defenceman in franchise history.

Sidney Crosby scored his 15th goal and had two assists. Crosby tied Jaromir Jagr for secondmost home goals in franchise history with 232. Riley Sheahan scored his fourth goal for Pittsburgh, which pulled into a third-place tie in the Metropolitan Division with the Islanders and New York Rangers. The Penguins have won two straight and five of eight following a slump in which they won once in 10 games.

Jake Guentzel had three assists and established a career-best six-game point streak for Pittsburgh, which scored six or more goals in backto-back games for the second time this season.

Casey DeSmith made 19 saves to win for the fifth time in six starts.