Crosby, Penguins Top Panthers In Overtime

Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Sidney Crosby tallied the lone goal in the shootout as Pittsburgh rallied from a two-goal deficit to clip Florida, 3-2, at Mellon Arena.

“Even though we were down 2-0 going into the third we felt like we were pretty close and we stayed with it and got a lot of shots,” Crosby said.

Crosby opened the second round with a wrister past Florida netminder Tomas Vokoun. Both shooters failed thereafter and Nathan Horton’s last-ditch effort to keep the game going was foiled when Brent Johnson made a glove stop.

Crosby also recorded two scores in regulation for the Penguins, who won their seventh consecutive game and have opened the season at 9-1-0, their best start since going 12-0-1 during the lockout-shortened 1995 year.

Johnson made 27 stops for his first win of the season.

Steve Reinprecht scored twice for the Panthers, who have dropped six of seven. Vokoun was strong in defeat, turning aside 41 shots.

Florida notched a power-play goal with 7:21 left in the first period as Reinprecht’s fluttering shot hit a body in front and deflected past Johnson.

Reinprecht followed for a 2-0 Florida game at 15:16, tapping in Horton’s shot which trickled through the crease near the goal line.

Vokoun kept the Pens off the board early in the third on a power play, as he flashed the glove to stop Evgeni Malkin’s wrister from 10 feet. However, Crosby brought Pittsburgh within a goal at 2:14, one-timing an Alex Goligoski feed from the right circle for a 5-on-3 goal.

A potential tying goal with 6:03 left in regulation was immediately waved off since Crosby gloved down a rising puck only to see teammate Bill Guerin bat it out of the air and in.

Crosby did tie the game, though, with a short-handed score at 16:41. It was his first-career tally with his team down one man.

“At this point we’ve given a lot of opportunities away,” Florida defenseman Keith Ballard said. “To have one where we’re beating a good team for two periods and to have that kind of third period, it’s frustrating.”

Pittsburgh began the 1992-93 campaign with eight wins and two ties...The Pens saw their first game without defenseman Sergei Gonchar, lost 4-to-6 months with a broken wrist...Martin Skoula, who was a healthy scratch for the first nine games, took Gonchar’s place.

- Via Sports Network.