UNIONDALE, N.Y — Arguably, the most consistent offensive force for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the course of the regular season was their top line of Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust.

Guentzel and Rust were the only members of the team who appeared in all 56 games during the regular season, and Crosby played in 55. Not coincidentally Crosby (24), Guentzel (23) and Rust (22) were the team’s three leading goal scorers.

Yet, through four games of their first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders, Crosby and Rust have been limited to one goal apiece. Guentzel, a prolific record-setting postseason scorer earlier in his career, has yet to find the back of the net this spring.

During Saturday’s 4-1 loss in Game 4 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, that line did well in terms of puck possession. According to Natural Stat Trick, the trio was on the ice for 19 shot attempts for and nine shots attempt against.

“I thought today, we had some good looks,” Crosby said via video conference. “(The Islanders) are not going to give you a ton. So when you get an opportunity, you’ve got to capitalize, you have to execute. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that. We had some really good looks in the second (period) before they scored. We’ve just to execute. That’s really what it comes down to.”

Guentzel, who has absorbed a fair amount of physical abuse from the Islanders this series, leads the team with 19 shots this postseason.

“Jake finds ways to get chances every night,” Sullivan said. “He’s had a handful of chances in this series. He hasn’t converted on them to this point. He’s had a number of pretty good looks. It’s going to take just hard work and ‘stick-to-it-ness.’

“We’ve just got to stay with it. I don’t think we were quite as sharp tonight. We didn’t have as many looks tonight as we had in the first few games. We’re going to have to work for those moving forward. But these guys are good offensive players.”

Sorokin steps up

After the Islanders went with typical starter Semyon Varlamov for Games 2 and 3, each losses, they placed their faith in Ilya Sorokin for Game 4 and he delivered by making 29 saves on 30 shots.

He was also in net for Game 1, a 4-3 overtime win at PPG Paints Arena in which he made 39 saves on 42 shots.

While Sorokin is a rookie, the 25-year-old has plenty of experience having won the gold medal for Russia in the 2018 Olympics as well as the Kontinental Hockey League’s (KHL) championship in 2019.

“He enjoys those moments, just like (Varlamov) does,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “He’s not a guy that is a pure rookie coming into the NHL or these high-pressure situations. He’s had a lot of them. As we’ve brought him along, he just feels very comfortable.”

ZAR gets SH goal

The Penguins broke up Sorokin’s shutout bid with a short-handed goal by forward Zach Aston-Reese at 17:25 of the third period.

Off the rush, Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin fired a wrister from the left circle that Sorokin knocked down with his glove. On the ensuing rebound, Aston-Reese was able to poke the puck in for his first career postseason goal.

It marked the Penguins’ first short-handed postseason score in more than four years. Their last goal on the penalty kill was by Matt Cullen in a 6-2 road win against the Washington Capitals in Game 2 of a second-round series April 29, 2017.

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