Penguins — finally — pick up first win at new arena

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Alex Goligoski’s power-play goal at 1:51 of overtime gave the Pittsburgh Penguins their first win at Consol Energy Center, 3-2 over the New York Islanders on Friday night.

Goligoski’s shot just under the crossbar from the left circle off a rebound of Evgeni Malkin’s shot beat goalie Rick DiPietro, giving Pittsburgh its first power-play goal of the game after seven unsuccessful tries.

Eric Tangradi scored his first career goal and Mike Rupp also scored for the Penguins, who were 0-3 at their new $321 million home. Josh Bailey and Radek Martinek scored and Blake Comeau had two assists for New York, which has lost nine consecutive games in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins scored twice in a 2:50 span early in the second and appeared on their way to easily breaking their hex at their new arena, facing an Islanders team playing without injured stars John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Mark Streit.

But a questionable penalty on Penguins defenseman Kris Letang changed the momentum of the game midway through the second period.

Bailey scored off a nice set up from Comeau with 8:42 to go in the second, drawing boos from the sellout crowd because the two were involved in an incident that gave the Islanders the power play that resulted in that goal.

Letang was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for an illegal check to the head on Comeau 3:30 prior, even though replays showed the contact was to Comeau’s shoulder.

Bailey immediately threw his gloves off and jumped Letang, drawing a roughing minor, but Comeau would not miss a shift and set up two goals in the next six minutes.