Conklin stops 50 shots as Pens beat Isles

Evgeni Malkin scored a
goal for trade-depleted Pittsburgh.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — If the Pittsburgh Penguins can win when giving up 52 shots, just think how good they’ll be when Sidney Crosby and Marian Hossa are passing the puck to each other.

On the day the Penguins won the trade deadline sweepstakes and acquired Hossa from Atlanta to play with Sid the Kid, Ty Conklin stole the show.

Conklin made an eye-popping, career-best 50 saves Tuesday night in the Penguins’ 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders.

“Sometimes shot clocks aren’t indicative of the game necessarily,” a humble Conklin said.

Evgeni Malkin and Jeff Taffe scored first-period goals for trade-depleted Pittsburgh, and Conklin did the rest. Since coming up in December after Marc-Andre Fleury injured an ankle, Conklin has gone 17-4-5.

Pittsburgh jumped over Ottawa and is just one point behind New Jersey for the lead in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division.

“I haven’t seen a goalie steal a game like that this year,” Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney said. “He is probably our MVP since Sid went out, he and Malkin. It’s not something we want to make a habit of though.”

Just hours after the Penguins made the biggest splash by acquiring Hossa for forwards Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen, Pittsburgh pulled out a win despite being outshot 52-21.

Frans Nielsen scored on Conklin in the second period to get the Islanders within 2-1. Trent Hunter hit the crossbar less than two minutes into the third, and New York dropped its second straight following a six-game winning streak.

“We thought if we keep pressuring them, we’d score some goals and take over the game, and we didn’t do that,” forward Miroslav Satan said. “It just wasn’t our day. We just have to remember what we did for six games in a row.”

Pittsburgh went 2-for-4 on the power play, compared to 1-for-9 for New York, on the outside of the Eastern playoff race.

“I’m not really sure we played our best game,” Conklin said. “We got some breaks, a couple of crossbars, and a couple of good chances they missed, too.”

Jordan Staal scored during a delayed-penalty call with 7:05 remaining to restore Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead, and Connor James — just up from the minors — made it 4-1 with 3:02 left on his first NHL goal.

The Penguins played two men short until James and Nathan Smith arrived in the second period. The bench got even shorter after Ryan Malone broke a skate and Rob Scuderi hurt a finger.

“It was like pickup hockey,” coach Michel Therrien said. “Who is fresh goes on the ice?”

Ruslan Fedotenko’s power-play goal brought the Islanders to 4-2.