Skoula’s goals lead Pens

It was only the third win in eight games for the defending champions.

ATLANTA (AP) — Defenseman Martin Skoula wasn’t thinking hat trick. In fact, he had never scored two goals in a game before Saturday night.

Skoula scored his goals — one in each of the first two periods — and the Pittsburgh Penguins held off the Atlanta Thrashers in a 3-2 victory.

Atlanta scored both goals in the third period, the last by Maxim Afinogenov with 18 seconds left.

“It had never happened for me before. I got lucky. It went in twice,” Skoula said.

It was only the third victory in eight games for the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins (15-8), who have been plagued by injuries after opening the season by winning 12 of 15. The Thrashers (10-7-2) fell to 4-5-1 at home.

Evgeni Malkin netted Pittsburgh’s other goal.

Skoula, who had scored only one previous goal this season, gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 7:38 of the first period. He beat goalie Johan Hedberg with a long shot from mid-ice on the power play.

Skoula made it 2-0 at 7:34 of the second, again on another long blast, easily beating the sprawling Hedberg.

Was he thinking hat trick?

“Not really. I don’t think it matters who scores. I’m not in there to score hat tricks,” he said.

“I’m happy for him. It’s big having a defenseman score two goals,” Pittsburgh goalie Mark-Andre Fleury said.

“I felt good. I was pretty relaxed. I tried to set the tempo,” said Fleury, who had a shutout until Chris Thorburn scored a short-handed goal 9:40 into the third period.

“We haven’t had a shutout [this season]. It would have been huge for us. But it’s OK. We won. That’s all that matters,” he said.

“He [Fleury] was solid. We needed that. He made some big saves,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “For the first 40 minutes, that was probably our best game.”

Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot was awarded a penalty shot with 2:26 left in the second period, but missed the net.