Islanders sweep home-and-home with Penguins

NEW YORK --Thomas Greiss made 29 saves, and the New York Islanders swept their home-and-home against the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-2 shootout win at Barclays Center on Thursday.

Josh Bailey scored the only goal in the shootout, and Greiss made saves on Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang to give the Islanders (7-4-1) their fourth straight win. They defeated the Penguins 6-3 on Tuesday.
The Islanders also kept alive their streak of consecutive wins against Metropolitan Division teams. They're 5-0-0 against teams in their division for the first time since 1982-83 and have won seven consecutive games against divisional opponents dating to last season.
WATCH: [All Penguins vs. Islanders highlights]
"I think you're seeing us buying in here," said Bailey, who extended his point streak to seven games with a goal on a shorthanded breakaway in the second period. "I think we're starting to believe more and more as time goes on. That's what you want. We want to be on an upward path throughout the course of the season and so far it's been good. We know there's going to be some ups and downs throughout, but you want to stay even keeled and ride these streaks as long as you can."
Bailey has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his point streak and an Islanders-high 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) this season. Anders Lee scored his fifth goal of the season.

Dominik Simon and Evgeni Malkin each scored a power-play goal for the Penguins (6-2-3), and Matt Murray made 24 saves. Malkin extended his point streak to nine games (six goals, 11 assists).
The Penguins have lost back-to-back games since winning four in a row and getting at least a point in seven straight (5-0-2), but coach Mike Sullivan was more pleased with the effort Thursday than he was Tuesday, when defensive breakdowns cost the Penguins.
"It was a lot better," Sullivan said. "The quality of the chances that we gave up weren't nearly as high and as a result the score was down. We did a much better job in that regard."
Simon gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 6:20 of the first period. He followed Jake Guentzel to the slot and put the puck into the top left corner after it came to him off Greiss' right pad.
Simon has at least one point in five straight games (two goals, four assists), including a goal in the past two.
"That's a great goal on the power play," Sullivan said. "He stayed with it. To get his stick on the puck in that situation was a real nice goal. … We really like how he's tracking."
The Islanders tied it 1-1 on Bailey's shorthanded breakaway at 14:46 of the second period. He got free behind Letang and got the puck on a bank pass off the right-wing wall from Casey Cizikas. Bailey beat Murray five-hole for his third goal of the season.

"It was a really good play by [Cizikas]," Bailey said. "It started with a big shot block and he was able to find me through the seam there, and I was able to put it home."
Lee's goal at 10:11 of the third period gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead. Thomas Hickey put the puck into the slot from the right circle and it banked into the net off Lee's right skate.
Malkin scored Pittsburgh's second power-play goal of the game with a one-timer from the right circle to make it 2-2 at 12:02.
The Penguins had two terrific chances in overtime thwarted by Greiss. First, he stopped Crosby on a breakaway at 3:12 with a poke check that seemed to surprise the Penguins' captain.
"Guess he didn't expect that," Greiss said. "Gotta mix it up every once in a while, keep 'em guessing. Happy it worked."
Greiss also made a glove save on Phil Kessel's hard wrist shot from between the circles at 4:54.
"Those are pretty good people coming at him and he didn't flinch," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "Then they throw a couple big names at him in the shootout and he was really good."

They said it

"I thought we had a fair amount of scoring chances, certainly from what we tracked. We generated a fair amount of scoring chances. They didn't go in the net for us but it was one of those games. There wasn't a lot of room out there." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
"The guys, I used the term last game, they've gone to school. They're understanding. They still make mistakes. This is a game about mistakes. If there are no mistakes, there are no goals. From our standpoint, we're going to just try to get better individually, and if we can do that individually and collectively we're going to be in a good place." -- Islanders coach Barry Trotz

Need to know

Letang led the Penguins with 26:01 of ice time after missing the game Tuesday with a lower-body injury. … Hickey's assist on Lee's goal was his first point of the season. … Islanders forward Jordan Eberle played his 600th NHL game.

What's next

Penguins:Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN1, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)
Islanders: Host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, MSG+, NHL.TV)