Penguins sweep two-game set from Islanders with fourth straight win

PITTSBURGH -- Casey DeSmith made 19 saves in relief after Tristan Jarry sustained an upper-body injury, and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 at PPG Paints Arena on Monday.

Jarry did not return for the second period after making five saves in the first. Pittsburgh's No. 1 goalie was still being evaluated, coach Mike Sullivan said.
"I don't have a lot of details for you at this point and can't even really pinpoint when it might have happened," Sullivan said. "Obviously, it was something the medical staff felt strongly enough about to take him out of the game."
DeSmith has not allowed more than two goals in seven straight games. He made eight saves in the first 7:02 of the second.
"I found out a couple minutes after we got in there that [Jarry] wasn't going back out," DeSmith said. "First time this year I think I had to go in cold, but I got warm real quick with that flurry there at the beginning of the second."

John Marino and Mike Matheson each had two assists for the Penguins (23-11-2), who extended their point streak to six games (5-0-1) with a fourth straight win.
Matt Martin scored, and Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves for the Islanders (22-10-4), who lost a second straight to the Penguins after winning their previous three games. They lost 6-3 here Saturday.
Pittsburgh finished 6-2-0 in its season series against New York. Four of the wins were decided by one goal, with two ending in overtime or a shootout.
"All the games have been pretty close. We lost some in overtime," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "There's two games, I think a 4-1 (on Feb. 18) and a 6-3 (on Saturday), that we weren't very good. It seems we want to play their game more than we want to play our game when we play the Penguins. I think we realize that. ... I think we've got a good understanding."
Anthony Angello put the Penguins ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 4:24 of the first period. Marino sent a pass from behind the net off Varlamov's stick to Angello in front for a backhand.
Jared McCann made it 2-0 at 18:28 when he redirected a pass in the slot from Marino at 4-on-4. McCann has six points (three goals, three assists) during a four-game point streak.

In six games since returning from an upper-body injury, McCann has played second-line center in place of Evgeni Malkin (lower body). The Penguins are 5-1-1 without Malkin.
"We're playing a complete game," McCann said. "We're doing the simple things to win the game. I know it sounds pretty cliche, but we're working as a team. ... We're doing all the right things to help each other and we're taking advantage of their mistakes and capitalizing."
New York has trailed 2-0 after the first period in each of its past three games.
"Obviously, we're not trying to do it," Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said. "But it's something that we have to stop now and really focus on the first five minutes, first 10 minutes next game, and coming with our best to start."
Martin cut it to 2-1 by tipping in a pass from Mathew Barzal on a power play at 9:22 of the second period. Martin hadn't scored a point in his previous eight games.
"I just think we're not getting off to the best starts," Martin said. "We have a lot of character in our room. We eventually find our game and get to our game. There's no quit in our game. ... We have to get off to better starts. Thankfully, we're heading home for the next six games
playing Saturday. … Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust each had a point streak end. Crosby scored 10 points (three goals, seven assists) during a five-game streak, and Rust scored eight (five goals, three assists) during a six-game streak. … Forward Josh Bailey played his 901st game to pass Bob Nystrom for third in Islanders history behind Bryan Trottier (1,123) and Denis Potvin (1,060).