Islanders 4, Penguins 1

Some news and notes, numbers and quotes from the Penguins’ 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum Saturday night:

*** The loss dropped the Penguins (13-4-2) into a tie with New York (14-6) for first place in the Metropolitan Division.

*** The Penguins have lost consecutive games for just the second time this season, although on both occasions they managed to take a point out of one of the defeats.

*** New York played like a team fighting for its very survival. The Penguins played like a team that realizes more than three-quarters of the season remain, which hardly creates urgency like that the Islanders showed. “They came with a lot of energy and outworked us a lot during the game,” Penguins defenseman Christian Ehrhoff said. “And that shouldn’t happen.”

*** Penguins center Sidney Crosby failed to get a point against the Islanders in consecutive games (during the same season) for the first time in his career.

*** Penguins coach Mike Johnston was satisfied with his team’s start, but not with the way its intensity declined over the course of the evening. “For half the game, we played well,” he said. “For the other half, they took it over. We can’t let that happen. We have to have some push-back when they had their surge there a couple of times in the second period and throughout the third.”

*** The Islanders swept the home-and-home series, having earned a 5-4 shootout victory at Consol Energy Center Friday night.

*** Evgeni Malkin scored the Penguins’ only goal. Matt Martin, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and John Tavares beat Penguins goalie Thomas Greiss for New York.

*** The team scoring first has lost each of the past five games between the Penguins and Islanders.

*** New York is fast and skilled and physical, although the Penguins insisted none of that surprised them. “They came as advertised, what we expected from them,” Ehrhoff said. “You have to give them credit. They played two good games. We just have to be better.”

*** New York improved to 6-2 at the Coliseum, where it had struggled to earn points in 2013-14. “If we want to be better and we want to make the playoffs, we have to be a competitive team on the road, but we have to win our home games,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said.

*** The Penguins got their only power play of the series when New York defenseman Thomas Hickey hooked Malkin at 5:17 of the third, but they failed to capitalize.

*** The Penguins will play in Boston Monday evening before returning home to face Toronto Wednesday.