The New York Islanders were cruising to their 11th straight win Thursday night on Long Island.
They held a 3-0 lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins, but a three-goal outburst by the Pens forced extra time and Bryan Rust scored his second goal of the game in the extra session to end the Isles run with a 4-3 Pittsburgh win.
Matt Murray made 20 saves in the win.
“I give our players a lot of credit,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Their resilience … to keep fighting and keep pushing in that third period I just think is an indication of the character we have in our room.”
Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck and Adam Pelech staked the Isles to the big lead.
“We’ve held a lot of leads over the last two years,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “We got passive and they got a push. … Bad on us. We needed everybody to make sure we did all the right things, get it deep, manage the puck, keep our shifts short, win the battles, races, all that.”
Evgeni Malkin had a goal, Jared McCann had a goal and two points on the night for the Pens.
[WATCH:Â All Penguins vs. Islanders highlights]
Semyon Varlamov made 35 saves in the loss.
“We played a good 40 minutes,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “We didn’t stick to what we had done through this stretch here, playing that full 60, putting teams away and not really letting them have an opportunity.
“We’ve just got to play better. That’s not the way we’ve been playing. We all know that, that’s why it’s just a little bit frustrating.”
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