Guentzel's second goal lifts Penguins past Panthers in OT

PITTSBURGH --Jake Guentzel scored two goals, including at 2:44 of overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.

Sidney Crosby lofted a pass to Guentzel, who skated past Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson before dragging the puck around Roberto Luongo and scoring on a backhand into an open net.
Crosby had three points (one goal, two assists), including his 1,200th in the NHL, and Matt Murray made 32 saves for Pittsburgh (35-22-9), which is 7-2-2 in its past 11 games and holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Penguins highlights]
"It's a good number," Crosby said about reaching 1,200 points. "I saw [Guentzel] kind of even with their D (on the game-winner), battling for position. I just tried to put a puck in an area and hope he could skate into it. He did a great job holding off the guy and getting control."
Henrik Borgstrom and Vincent Trocheck scored, Mike Hoffman had two assists, and Luongo made 34 saves for Florida (28-26-12), which has lost five straight (0-1-4) and trails the Montreal Canadiens by nine points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the East.
"It's another hard-fought point," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "It's just getting frustrating, obviously, not being able to execute in the overtime, or put a game away in overtime. ... I think that we have to execute better in overtime and bury our chances. To talk about our effort, talk about our battle and our compete, all those things were there. We had a couple turnovers that cost us."

Borgstrom gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 1:45 of the first period when his pass toward the crease redirected off Penguins defenseman Erik Gudbranson's stick over Murray's glove.
"It was a tough game. We both played well. Unfortunately, we didn't get the win," Borgstrom said. "I thought we had a few [scoring chances], especially at the very end of it. Of course, we could've created more, there's no doubt about it. Overall, I think we played really well."
Guentzel scored 16 seconds into the second period to tie it 1-1. After Matheson couldn't handle the puck in his own zone, Crosby collected it and attempted a pass to Jared McCann that Aaron Ekblad knocked to Guentzel, who scored glove side.
"What does [Guentzel] have, 33 goals now?" Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I think his consistency is his biggest thing. Give Jake, himself, a lot of credit for that because he's taking care of himself. He's doing the things off the ice that give him the opportunity to be successful."

Crosby scored on a power play to put the Penguins ahead 2-1 at 10:01, converting a rebound off Phil Kessel's initial shot into an open net form the slot. He has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in a five-game multipoint streak.
Trocheck tied it 2-2 with a one-timer from a sharp angle at the bottom of the left face-off circle at 17:31 of the second.

They said it

"We've been talking about it the last few games. All these games right now are playoff games for us. We have to come out with a lot more intensity. I thought we played a pretty good game, but we talked about it. Against a team like this, there's so much firepower that you can't make too many stupid mistakes." -- Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck

"To be a part of a couple of [Crosby's] points, it's special. It's always special to be a part of something like that. It's such a cool honor." -- Penguins forward Jake Guentzel

Need to know

Each of Florida's past six losses has been decided by one goal. ... Panthers forward Riley Sheahan had one shot in 15:28 of ice time in his return to Pittsburgh. He was acquired in a trade with the Penguins on Feb. 1. ... Penguins forward Matt Cullen became the second U.S.-born player to play 1,500 NHL games. Chris Chelios played 1,651 games from 1984-2010. Cullen's teammates each wore a No. 7 jersey with his last name on the back during pregame warmups. ... Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin returned after missing three games with a concussion. ... Murray started a fifth straight game for the Penguins for the first time this season. ... Crosby became the 48th player in NHL history to reach 1,200 points and joined San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton, who has 1,465 points (410 goals, 1,055 assists) in 1,550 games, as the only active players to reach that milestone. Crosby required the 11th fewest games (927) of any player to record 1,200 points.

What's next

Panthers:At the Boston Bruins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, NESN, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Penguins:Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)