Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal lifts Penguins over Panthers 3-2

Crosby’s goal in OT lifts Penguins over Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. — Sidney Crosby scored on a power play at 3:07 of overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period to beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 Monday night.

Pascal Dupuis and Michael Rupp also scored for the Penguins, who won consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Oct. 17 and 20. Evgeni Malkin had two assists.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 19 shots for the Penguins, who outshot Florida 45-21.

Nathan Horton and Keith Ballard scored for the Panthers, who have lost only once in regulation in their last 12 games (8-1-3). Michael Frolik had two assists, and Tomas Vokoun made 42 saves.

This was the second time in two meetings this season that the Penguins trailed 2-0 after two periods and won the game.

The Penguins got a 4-minute power play at 1:25 of overtime when Horton was penalized for high-sticking.

Crosby scored from the side of the net off a rebound of Malkin’s slap shot. It was only Crosby’s second goal in his last 12 games.

Malkin set up the tying goal with 2:32 left from behind the net. After holding the puck for a while, he lost control of it but was able to jab it to the front of the net, where Rupp poked it between Vokoun’s legs.

Pittsburgh began its comeback at 4:49 of the third with a fluke goal.

Dupuis grabbed a rebound in front of the net and fired a shot through traffic. The puck bounced up, hit Vokoun’s shoulder and trickled past the goal line just before defenseman Bryan Allen dislodged the net.

Horton extended his point streak to six games when he opened the scoring at 17:33 of the first period after a great play by Stephen Weiss.

Weiss split defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik skating across the front of the net before spinning around and feeding Horton on the other side. Horton then fired a wrist shot on the short side.

Ballard made it 2-0 at 10:21 of the second when he took a drop pass from Frolik and beat Fleury with a wrist shot over his left shoulder.

NOTES: Florida unveiled its new third jersey, which features dark blue as its main color and light blue shoulders. The Panthers will wear the jersey 12 times this season. … Radek Dvorak played in his 500th game with the Panthers. He became the seventh player to reach that milestone, joining Robert Svehla, Olli Jokinen, Scott Mellanby, Paul Laus, Rob Niedermayer and Bill Lindsay. … Pittsburgh is 5-0 against Southeast Division teams. … Florida C Gregory Campbell missed the game because of an upper-body injury.