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Armstrong's OT goal caps late comeback by Penguins

Mar 11, 2007 - 6:28 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Sooner or later, penalties will come back to haunt you. The New York Rangers found that out the hard way.

Rookie Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby scored power-play goals in the third period and Colby Armstrong tallied 79 seconds into overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 comeback victory over the Rangers.

Entering with a three-game winning streak, the Rangers seemed poised to extend the stretch as defenseman Karel Rachunek and Matt Cullen staked them to a 2-0 lead after two periods. But after successfully killing six penalties over the first 40 minutes, New York could not continue the stellar effort in the third.

With former Penguin Michal Rozsival serving a high-sticking infraction, Malkin halved the deficit at 3:32 with his 31st goal. Just over three minutes later, Crosby netted his 28th during a man advantage to forge a 2-2 tie.

"For us, it was about the penalties, naturally, and giving them the opportunity to put a pretty good group of people on the ice a couple of times to score some key goals for them," Rangers coach Tom Renney said.

It was the league-leading 100th point of the season for Crosby, who joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Stastny and Mike Rogers as the only players in NHL history to reach the century mark in each of their first two campaigns.

"It's never something I think about," Crosby said of reaching the mark. "When it (gets close to happening), I might think about it a little more. It's nice, for sure, but there's a lot of games left - important ones - and that's where my mind has been."

The game remained even until Pittsburgh capitalized on a turnover in overtime. Maxime Talbot kept in a clearing attempt at the blue line and passed to Armstrong, whose shot from the far side of the right faceoff circle deflected off New York defenseman Marek Malik's stick and over goaltender Henrik Lundqvist's left shoulder.

"I think their guys were a little tired and made a couple sloppy passes," Armstrong said. "Me and (Talbot) came off the bench and put on some pressure. It was a good play on his part to keep that puck in. It was a big goal for us."

"I went for the puck and Marek tried to make the right play and cut off the pass," Lundqvist said. "It's just unfortunate that it went in. But it was not there where we made the mistake. We have to clear the puck before that."

With the win, Pittsburgh improved to 4-1-1 in its last six games and 6-18-3 when trailing after two periods.

"We've done it for a while," Crosby said. "We just don't give up. We try to finish the game strong, especially when you're down, you need to play desperate. We're finding ways."

"Certainly, we want to play better for 60 minutes, and we agree that we have to be better for 60 minutes," said Penguins assistant coach Andre Savard, who was filling in for Michel Therrien. "But a lot of teams go through that, and we have addressed it many times. But I think you have to go with the positives more. They showed a lot of character and they didn't give up."

Therrien was not with the team due to the death of his father.

Of their last 15 contests, 14 have been one-goal decisions, with the Penguins going 10-4-1.

Defenseman Sergei Gonchar had two assists and Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for the Penguins (37-21-10), who climbed within one point of the Ottawa Senators (39-23-7) for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

Lundqvist stopped 20 shots for New York (33-27-8), which is 4-0-2 in its last six and one point behind idle Carolina (34-28-7) for eighth place in the East.

"We took way too many penalties, and that's just a tough way to (try to) win a game," Lundqvist said. "We played a great game. If we could take away all the penalties..."

In addition to losing the game, the Rangers lost their captain as Jaromir Jagr left after two periods with an undisclosed injury.

Pittsburgh forced the overtime by cashing in on Brandon Dubinsky's hooking penalty. Just 19 seconds after the rookie was sent to the box, Malkin fired a pass from the right circle to Crosby, who gloved the puck with his left hand and placed it on the ice before backhanding it into the net at 6:56.

"I just go to the same spots, thinking eventually, hopefully, the puck's going to come to you," Crosby said. "I try not to force things too much. That's what I tried to do. I got a puck in the area there and made it go in."

Crosby did not play in the extra session due to an equipment problem. Before the 19-year-old was able to get it fixed, Armstrong already had scored.

"I have a lot of trust in the guys, but I want to be out there, especially in overtime because it's such a key point in the game and I am just sitting there," Crosby said. "It's hard just watching. I was ready in the runway when they dropped the puck. I was three steps away from the door."

The Penguins finished 2-for-9 on the power play, while the Rangers were scoreless in five opportunities with the extra skater.

"We had enough power plays to put the game away," Renney said. "As we didn't do that and became a bit frustrated, we overextended ourselves a little bit and took penalties ourselves. It comes down to our game and how we have to play."