NEW YORK _ For the first 20 minutes, the Penguins' game against the Rangers Tuesday night went mostly to script.
Penguins stars breaking out, the two-time defending champions overwhelming a Rangers team struggling to find its footing on the season.
The final 40 minutes _ and then some _ didn't quite follow suit, but it ended with two points in the standings for the Penguins.
The Penguins beat the Rangers, 5-4, as Evgeni Malkin scored the game-winner at 0:58 of overtime.
The Rangers appeared to be in line for the win until late in the third. David Desharnais scored his second goal of the game at 8:00 of the period to put the Rangers up 4-3.
But Sidney Crosby tied the score with just 55 seconds remaining as he _ once again _ scored a goal few players can. From behind the goal line, Crosby banked the puck up and in off Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The Penguins tended to make things difficult, but they came away with the win.
For the first 20 minutes the Penguins appeared to be in for a relatively easy night, with both Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin breaking out of slumps.
Kessel didn't wait long to break his four-game goalless stretch. Just 43 seconds into the game, Malkin found him moving down the right side of the ice. Kessel wound up from just above the right faceoff dot, and fired an absolute laser into the upper corner past Lundqvist.
The goal was Kessel's second of the season. If you forgot his first, that's understandable _ it was the Penguins' lone score in their 10-1 debacle in Chicago Oct. 5.
Hagelin, meanwhile, had actually gone the first six games without finding the back of the net, the only forward who has played every game on the top three lines to not score going into Tuesday night.
And his goal, which put the Penguins up 2-0 at 13:30 of the first period, didn't look all that different from Kessel's. Hagelin skated in 2-on-1 with fellow Swede Patric Hornqvist, and rather than pass, confidently ripped a wrist shot high and past Lundqvist.
It marked Hagelin's first goal since the empty-net score that clinched the Penguins' Stanley Cup championship last June.
After the first period, it looked like the Penguins would cruise to an easy win against a flailing Rangers team, which came into the game just 1-5-0 on the season.
But as the second period started, the teams appeared to reverse roles. The Penguins have been susceptible to shaky second periods this season, outscored 10-8 in the middle frames this season, and that was certainly the case Tuesday night.
The Rangers scored three goals in the span of 2:30 midway through the second period to storm back and take the lead. The latter two goals came on the power play with Crosby in the box for a four-minute high-sticking penalty. The entire period, really, was dominated by special teams, with the teams combining for 14 total penalty minutes.
After J.T. Miller's goal gave the Rangers the lead at 8:32 of the second, they came close to doubling their lead on more than one occasion. With the Penguins on their heels, the Rangers saw one scoring chance hit the post and another trickle just wide.
The Rangers also squandered a golden opportunity to extend their lead at the end of the second period, when Crosby and Hagelin were whistled for slashing penalties within three seconds of one another. They didn't score on the 5-on-3, though, and it was cut short after 1:44 when Chad Kreider was called for cross-checking.
With Kreider in the box, Hornqvist salvaged an otherwise-disastrous period for the Penguins. Occupying his normal spot in front of the net on the Penguins' top power play, Hornqvist redirected a pass from Kessel past Lundqvist and in to tie the score, 3-3, and send the Penguins to the locker room with some positive momentum.
They couldn't carry it over into the third, though. Malkin tried to give the Penguins some extra life when he fought Kevin Shattenkirk early in the period, but the only result was a two-minute roughing penalty and a brief trip to the locker room to get checked out for injury (he returned, unhurt).
Just before Malkin returned to the ice, though, the Rangers appeared to get the game-winner with Desharnais' second of the game, but Crosby and Malkin made sure that wasn't the case.
The Penguins return to action Friday, on the road, at Tampa Bay.
