Crosby cages Panthers
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby 3, Florida Panthers 2.
Crosby had a power-play goal and a short-handed score in the third period, then scored the only goal in a shootout to help the Pittsburgh Penguins win their seventh straight game, 3-2, over the Panthers Friday night.
"We struggled in the first half, but we were able to rebound," said Crosby, playing his 300th career regular-season game. "We stuck with things, and that shows a lot."
After personally erasing a two-goal deficit in the third period, Crosby moved in slowly on Tomas Vokoun in the shootout and made three moves to his forehand before finally tucking the puck into the net as the goalie dove to his left.
"Every game's not going to be perfect," Crosby said. "We found a way to turn the game around."
The Stanley Cup champion Penguins are an NHL-best 9-1-0.
Steven Reinprecht scored twice in the first period for Florida. The Panthers have lost six of seven to drop to 2-5-1.
"The effort's good, but effort doesn't get you two points," Florida defenseman Keith Ballard said. "We were kind of dumb in the third period. We took too many penalties and stayed in our end the whole time... In the third, they pick it up a little bit, and it's almost like we just kind of clammed up just trying to hang."
Brent Johnson stopped the Panthers' Reinprecht, Ville Koistinen and Nathan Horton during the shootout and made 27 saves during regulation and overtime in winning for the first time as a Penguin.
Pittsburgh won in the first game since All-Star defenseman Sergei Gonchar was lost for at least four weeks because of a broken bone in his wrist.
"We were still in striking distance (heading into the third)," Crosby said. "We felt like even in the second half of the second period, we created some chances. Even though we were down 2-0 going into the third, we felt like we were pretty close."
Crosby tied it with 3:19 to play with his short-handed goal, one-timing a feed from Evgeni Malkin with a shot that appeared to deflect off a Florida player.
Crosby's first goal of the game came a second after a 5-on-3 power play had expired 2:14 into the third after Malkin kept in the puck in the zone. Malkin swatted the puck to Alex Goligoski, who fed an open Crosby in the right-wing circle.
"We had a bad start, but after that we played better and did a good job in the third period," Malkin said. "(Johnson) played very well."
Notes: Penguins C Jordan Staal left the game briefly late in the second period and early in the third because of an undisclosed injury. He returned to finish the game. ... D Martin Skoula made his season debut for the Penguins in place of Gonchar.
