Crosby gives Penguins OT win against Rangers

NEW YORK --Sidney Crosby scored 2:27 into overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 5-4 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

It was Crosby's second overtime goal of the season and the 18th of his NHL career, moving him into third place on the NHL all-time list behind Alex Ovechkin (24) and Jaromir Jagr (19).
"We just had some good pressure there for a couple shifts so we knew we were playing against tired guys," Crosby said. "We were trying to find some openings to get some shots. We ended up getting that. I didn't get all of it, but I was glad to see it go in."
P.O Joseph had the assist on Crosby's winner, his third of the game. It was the rookie defenseman's fifth NHL game.
Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and an assist, and Casey DeSmith made 30 saves for the Penguins (5-3-1), who have won all three games against the Rangers this season. They play again here Monday.

Rookie defenseman K'Andre Miller had two assists for his first multipoint game in the NHL, and Alexandar Georgiev made 33 saves for the Rangers (2-4-2), who have lost three of five games they have led going into the third period.
The Penguins won for the third time in seven games when trailing going into the third period. They were down 4-3 but outshot the Rangers 16-7 in the third after allowing three goals on 13 shots in the second.
"It's a recurring theme at this point," New York forward Chris Kreider said. "We've shown what we can do in spurts. We understand what we need to do to be successful. Then they crank up the intensity a little bit in the third period there and all of a sudden we get away from it and start going east-west and not advancing zones. You don't win at the NHL level doing that.
"When push came to shove in the third period they were going north, they were putting pucks behind our [defensemen]. It was something we had done all night and done successfully all night and we just got away from it."

The Penguins played the final 49:45 without defenseman Kris Letang, who was being evaluated for a lower-body injury, coach Mike Sullivan said. Letang appeared to injure himself defending Adam Fox in the corner with 10:37 remaining in the first period.
The Penguins were already playing without defensemen Brian Dumoulin (lower body), Mike Matheson (upper body), Marcus Pettersson (upper body) and Juuso Riikola (upper body).
"It's unfortunate but we did a pretty good job back at 'D' tonight," said Joseph, who played 25:58. "You just try and keep the game simple and good things happen."
Jake Guentzel tied it 4-4 at 9:18 of the third period, scoring off his rebound after the puck hit the right post.
"I thought the third period was great, the way we played on our toes, creating chances off the rush, in the zone," Crosby said. "That's hard to play against. That's when we're at our best. We've got to build on that."
Artemi Panarin's power-play goal at 16:01 of the second period gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead. New York tied it 3-3 at 10:25 on Kreider's goal off a rebound, which came 43 seconds after Kapanen gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead on a breakaway.
The Rangers tied it 2-2 when Kevin Rooney scored on a 2-on-0 shorthanded breakaway off a pass from Miller at 7:20 of the second.
The Penguins were 0-for-4 on the power play and are 0-for-13 in the past three games.
"I think it's just execution [on the power play]," Crosby said. "We're well-prepared. We understand what we need to do. We have to find a way to execute and make sure we have the same level of compete that the penalty kill we're playing against has."

Brandon Tanev scored on a deflection of Joseph's shot from the left point at 19:20 of the first period to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Jason Zucker had given the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 7:39, and Brendan Lemieux scored at 13:52 to make it 1-1.
"At the end of the day we probably got what we deserved," Rangers coach David Quinn said.
NOTES: Rangers forward Colin Blackwell sustained an upper-body injury in the first period. He played four shifts totaling 2:53 and was minus-1. Quinn didn't have an update. … Penguins defenseman Yannick Weber, who signed a one-year contract Wednesday, was minus-2 and had three hits in 12:02 in his debut. … Forward Evgeni Malkin played his 916th game with the Penguins, passing Mario Lemieux for second in Pittsburgh history. Crosby leads with 993.