Penguins are a lemon in the Big Apple

Needing only a win to clinch a playoff spot, the Penguins fell flat

Pittsburgh’s performance was pitiful against the New York Islanders.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins picked a perfectly poor time to take a night off.

Fresh off a big home win over New Jersey Saturday and facing another key matchup with the Devils tonight in the tight Atlantic Division race, the Penguins never showed up against the New York Islanders and paid for it.

Bill Guerin had a goal and assist in the decisive second period for the also-ran Islanders, who prevented the Penguins from clinching a playoff spot Monday night with a 4-1 victory.

“I hope every team takes us a little bit for granted,” said winning goalie Wade Dubielewicz, who made 28 saves. “We have a feisty group in here.”

Pittsburgh holds a two-point lead over New Jersey in the divisional race, but missed a chance to double its advantage heading into tonight’s road meeting. The Penguins dropped three points behind Montreal in the fight for first in the Eastern Conference with six games left.

“Really, really disappointed with the performance,” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. “I’m speechless about their effort, I’m speechless about their concentration and their will to win this game.”

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby sat out his sixth straight game and 27th in 30 because of a sprained right ankle, but is close to returning — perhaps tonight. Pittsburgh is 15-8-4 without him.

Richard Park, Sean Bergenheim and Trent Hunter also scored for the Islanders, who snapped a five-game losing streak at home.

“Honestly, I just thought we played harder,” Guerin said. “We had everybody finishing their checks, moving their feet better. I think that was the difference.”

One day after their 4-1 loss at Philadelphia eliminated them from postseason contention, the Islanders put a crimp in the Penguins’ playoff plans in a classic trap game.

Sandwiched between a pair against New Jersey, the Penguins didn’t respond to the challenge of taking care of a team that had nothing to play for. Pittsburgh came off a 7-1 home victory over the Devils Saturday, but fell to 4-3 this season against the Islanders.

“We obviously weren’t on our best game,” forward Jordan Staal said. “We just came out flat. We were a little sloppy. There is no excuse for it. We should’ve been ready for this game, and we weren’t.

“It’s a lot nicer that we don’t have to think about this game too long before our next big game comes up. We’re going to learn from this mistake and hopefully we’ll be ready for a big game [tonight].”

Petr Sykora had the lone goal for the Penguins, who started Ty Conklin in goal over Marc-Andre Fleury. Conklin got his second start in five games because of the back-to-back contests and for his career-best, 50-save effort in a 4-2 win over the Islanders Feb. 26.

He finished with 32 saves.

New York, which had lost seven of eight, took control in the second period, scoring twice and outshooting the Penguins 14-3 after the teams recorded 12 shots each in the first.

“I don’t know if they were 100 percent into this game or if we just played so well,” Bergenheim said.

Guerin drilled a shot off the post behind Conklin about eight minutes into the period when the game was tied 1-1. He refined his aim with 8:15 left, wristing in a shot — another that clanged off the post.

The lead grew to 3-1 just 3:08 later when Conklin left a rebound off another shot by Guerin that was put in by Bergenheim at the left post.

“We were kind of OK in the first period, but after that we didn’t play our game,” Therrien said. “The work ethic was not there. They worked harder than us. It’s pretty simple. That’s why they won.”