Anders Lee scored twice in the third period but the Islanders were unable to sweep a home-and-home series with a 3-2 loss to the Penguins on Sunday night at PPG Paints Arena. Slow starts in each of the first two periods and a special teams’ disadvantage proved the difference.

In their second match against the Penguins in 24 hours, with a chance to climb back to NHL-.500 and within touching distance of the playoff cutline, the Islanders fell flat in the form of a 3-2 defeat at PPG Paints Arena. A 14-16-7 record after 37 games is, indeed, hard to take all that seriously as a contender.

NEW YORK (AP) — Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee each scored twice and the New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Saturday night. Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Anthony Duclair also scored, and Mathew Barzal and Alexander Romanov each had two assists for New York, which had lost three of four. Ilya Sorokin finished with 22 saves.