Penguins 3, Panthers 2 (OT)
PITTSBURGH -- Center Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal 1:21 into overtime, Sidney Crosby scored his first goal of the season and the Pittsburgh Penguins came back from squandering a two-goal lead in the third period to beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Malkin powered a shot past Florida goalie Roberto Luongo with the teams skating 4-on-3 for his third goal of the season and Pittsburgh's third straight victory -- and it was the previously missing power play that accomplished it.
Crosby's line, held to a single goal in Pittsburgh's first five games, scored twice. And the Penguins, previously one of only two teams without a power-play goal, ended an 0-for-17 streak with the man advantage when Crosby scored 11 minutes in. The Penguins finished 2-for-5 with the man advantage.
Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 31 shots for his third straight victory.
With Panthers center Nick Bjugstad off for hooking midway through the first period, Crosby finished off a quick-moving sequence of passes by taking Malkin's cross-ice pass to the right circle and wristing it past Florida goalie Roberto Luongo.
That 1-0 lead held up until early in the third, when Panthers right winger Reilly Smith's apparent redirection goal of defenseman Brian Campbell's slap shot from along the left-wing boards was waved off because Smith's stick was above the crossbar.
Panthers coach Gerard Gallant was clearly unhappy with the call. And he was even more displeased when Penguins right winger Phil Kessel scored just over two minutes later, at 3:17, when he shoved a deflected shot past Luongo, who made 32 saves in the game.
But the Panthers, who couldn't hold a 2-0 lead during a 4-2 loss Saturday against Dallas, came back from a 2-0 deficit this time on third-period goals less than three minutes apart by fourth-liners Quinton Howden and Derek MacKenzie.
Howden, the right winger, scored at 11:04, then assisted on center MacKenzie's goal -- it was the first of the season for both -- at 13:57. Left winger Connor Brickley assisted on both.
Ageless Panthers right winger Jaromir Jagr couldn't score after getting four goals in five goals and remains without a goal in Pittsburgh since 2011.
Jagr is now on his eighth NHL club since breaking in with the Penguins' Stanley Cup-winning team in 1990-91. Since the 43-year-old Jagr debuted 25 years ago, the Penguins have gone through 389 players -- 360 skaters and 29 goaltenders.
Jagr hasn't played for the Penguins in 15 years, or since the 2000-01 season, yet he easily remains their leading scorer over the last quarter-century with 1,079 points in a Pittsburgh uniform. Mario Lemieux is second with 885 points.
NOTES: C Connor Brinkley returned to the Florida Panthers' fourth line, replacing LW Shawn Thornton. ... This was the Panthers' only regular-season game in Pittsburgh in 2015-16. ... Florida scratched Thornton, D Steven Kampfer and D Dylan Olsen. ... Daniel Sprong, the Penguins' 18-year-old right winger, missed the game while being held up in Canada attending to visa issues. The second Dutch-born player in NHL history moved to Canada at age 7. Bryan Rust moved up to the third line to replace him. ... LW Chris Kunitz replaced RW Patric Hornqvist on the Penguins' top power-play unit. Coach Mike Johnston also is experimenting with RW Phil Kessel playing in the high slot rather than the left circle, with C Evgeni Malkin on the left half wall and C Sidney Crosby on the right half wall. ... Pittsburgh held out Sprong, D Tim Erixon and D Adam Clendening. ... The Penguins complete a season-long, five-game homestand Thursday against Dallas, which beat Pittsburgh 3-0 in a season opener on Oct. 8.