Pittsburgh, PA (My Sportsbook) - Kristopher Letang scored the lone goal of the shootout and Marc-Andre Fleury was solid, making 31 saves, as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-2, at Mellon Arena.

After the first two shooters were unable to score in the shootout, Letang got a backhander past Kari Lehtonen on the stick side to give the Penguins the advantage. Three shooters later Fleury stopped Ilya Kovalchuk with a pad save and Pittsburgh prevailed, earning the two points.

Ryan Malone and Maxime Talbot each scored in regulation for the Penguins, who snapped a brief two-game losing skid. Pittsburgh moved into first place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the New Jersey Devils.

Jim Slater and Slava Kozlov each tallied for Atlanta, which has lost seven straight games. Joel Kwiatkowski had two assists in defeat.

Lehtonen stopped 32-of-34 shots for Atlanta.

With the Penguins holding onto a 2-1 lead after two periods, Atlanta had some power play time remaining heading into the third frame. With Evgeni Malkin in the box serving an interference penalty, the Thrashers capitalized. Colby Armstrong controlled the puck at the right circle in the Pittsburgh end, then got it behind the net to Kozlov. The veteran winger then stepped out in front and chopped the disc past Fleury to even the contest.

Despite several quality chances by both teams during the rest of the third and in overtime, there was no further scoring and the game went to overtime.

Pittsburgh waisted little time getting on the board as Malone lit the lamp 50 seconds into the contest to give the home squad the early advantage.

Talbot than took a feed from Ruutu, skated across the blue line, into the Atlanta zone and backhanded the puck passed Lehtonen to the stick side to put the Penguins up by two at 2:09 of the first stanza.

The Thrashers got one back with 5:35 left in the opening frame when Slater beat Fleury with a wrist shot from the low right circle to make it a 2-1 game.

Game Notes

Attendance was 17,132...Pittsburgh will visit Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, while Atlanta will host Carolina on Wednesday...Marian Hossa, who was traded to the Pens from Atlanta prior to the NHL trade deadline missed the contest with an MCL strain in his left knee...Thrashers defenseman Niclas Havelid left the game in the first period with an apparent elbow injury and didn't return...Pittsburgh improved to 19-10-5 at home this season, while Atlanta fell to 13-18-4 on the road.