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Malone's two goals lift Penguins past Panthers

Feb 20, 2008 - 4:50 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Ryan Malone scored two goals late in the third period, including the game-winner with 23 seconds left, and Ty Conklin made 27 saves to rally the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.

All-Star Evgeni Malkin had two assists for the Penguins, who have posted an 8-4-2 record since captain Sidney Crosby was sidelined with a high ankle sprain. With his two points, Malkin took over the NHL scoring lead with 79 points.

"I'm pretty tired right now, so I don't really care about that," Malkin said. "It's just another game and it's great if my name is in the paper more, maybe more people will know who Malkin is."

Pittsburgh faced a 2-0 deficit entering the final session, but Colby Armstrong started the comeback with his eighth goal of the season at 4:43.

Malone tied the contest at 2-2 with 3:20 remaining when he deflected defenseman Ryan Whitney's shot from the right faceoff circle past All-Star netminder Tomas Vokoun.

The Penguins then took the lead as Malone notched his 19th goal of the season with just 23 ticks to play.

"That's leadership; he (Malone) showed a lot of leadership in the third period," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "I've been with him for almost three years, and he's come a long way. I give him a lot of credit."

Malone skated into the zone and fought off a defender as he drove to the net. He slid the puck into the crease and took a body check from blue-liner Bryan Allen as the puck went off the skate of Vokoun and into the goal.

"I can't really look too far past myself, obviously on that last play I obviously hit him (Malone) into (Vokoun) and I saw the puck was in," Allen said.

There was a brief video review but the goal was upheld.

"I thought he ran the goalie," said Panthers coach Jacques Martin, who was looking for his 100th win with Florida. "The puck wasn't in the net and my expectation was that when he hit Vokoun, that's when the puck went in."

Malone admitted that it wasn't the prettiest goal he's ever scored.

"I knew there wasn't too much time left, so I tried to bring it to the net - and actually I kind of lost it there - and got a nice little bounce. I'll take it."

Vokoun, who has now lost to the Penguins three times this season, turned aside 29 shots.

Despite Pittsburgh having the better of the chances in the first period, Florida took a 1-0 lead into the locker room thanks to David Booth's goal. Booth corralled the resulting rebound off a shot by Kamil Kreps and wristed it past Conklin with 3:36 left.

Florida took a 2-0 edge with 7:42 remaining in the second on a shorthanded goal by Brett McLean. With Pittsburgh on the power play, Jeff Taffe attempted a pass to defenseman Darryl Sydor, who could not handle the puck. McLean stole it and went the other way on a breakaway and beat Conklin stick side with a hard wrist shot.

"I thought that we were (in control of the game) and we just have to learn how to protect the lead," Florida defenseman Ruslan Salei said. "We just have to play the same way for 60 minutes. For some reason we get a little bit scared, afraid to make mistakes."