LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings can’t win in regulation, and they’re unbeatable in extra time. They fail to score a goal for a full week, and then they outscore the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Although the Kings’ season doesn’t make much sense so far, not even Sidney Crosby’s latest burst of brilliance could stop them.

Nic Dowd scored 2:37 into overtime, and the Kings snapped a three-game skid with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.

Trevor Lewis and Matt Greene scored slump-busting goals and Peter Budaj made 21 saves in a strong bounce-back effort for the Kings, who had been shut out in three consecutive games and 10 full periods before they applied their grinding defensive game to slow down the speedy Pens.

Los Angeles is 0-6-0 in regulation this season, but 5-0-0 in overtime games.

“We obviously played through (difficulties), coming from down a goal, and got a lead,” said coach Darryl Sutter, who earned his 600th NHL victory. “I thought we were really solid. Scored the first goal. Just got to keep fighting through that stuff.”

The Kings started overtime with a power play, but Pittsburgh easily killed it. Dowd then got in alone on Fleury and slipped in a backhand for his second NHL goal.

Dowd said he only ended up in position to score because he had fallen down earlier, forcing him to join the rush late.

“Nothing special. I just made a move and luckily that side was open,” Dowd said. “Maybe the other 50 percent of the time, maybe (Fleury) is there.”

Crosby scored two goals for Pittsburgh, giving him six in five games to start his season. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 shots for the Penguins, whose four-game winning streak ended.

“It was just tight hockey,” Crosby said. “They’re pretty comfortable playing that way. They’re always pretty stingy, especially playing at home. That’s just kind of the game you expect. You don’t accept it. You want to get chances, you want to generate, but not if it means giving things back the other way.”

Despite giving up Crosby’s tying goal midway through the third period, the Kings rallied to win a meeting of Second Six NHL franchises celebrating their 50th anniversaries. These teams have won four of the last eight Stanley Cup titles, but only the Penguins are in contending form at this early point of the season.

Crosby has scored goals in four of his five games with two multi-goal efforts.