NEW YORK -- If the Penguins win the Atlantic Division by a point, they might feel a little better about the one they picked up last night.

Same way if it clinches home-ice advantage or gets them into the playoffs.

But until then, their 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden will stand as one of the more rancid memories of their 2008-09 season.

Hard for them to think of it any other way after they built a 2-0 lead during the first 36 minutes of play -- and still were up by a goal with 10 seconds left in regulation -- but couldn't hold back the Rangers' third-period surge long enough to escape with a second point.

"The way we played in the third period, we probably don't even deserve [one]," defenseman Brooks Orpik said.

Good point. The Penguins, after all, were outshot, 18-2, during those final 20 minutes of regulation, and the flow of play was every bit as unbalanced at that stat suggests.

Even so, the Penguins could have survived if Sidney Crosby's backhander from center ice had bounced into the net vacated by New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist, instead of going wide as time was winding down. Or if Rangers winger Nikolai Zherdev hadn't culminated the rush that followed by blowing a shot past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from high in the right circle at 19:51 to force overtime.

Or if the Penguins, who had been effective for most of the first two periods by maintaining possession of the puck and making plays, hadn't strayed from that strategy. Which clearly was not done at the behest of coach Michel Therrien.

"Some guys started cheating, not following the system," Therrien said. "Some guys, they don't have confidence in their games. When you don't have confidence, you're like, backing up, backing up, backing up. In this league, when you give time and space, the [opposing] players will find plays [to make]."

That's what Zherdev did, and even though the Penguins controlled play during overtime -- they had twice as many shots during those five minutes as they got during the previous 20 -- they were unable to beat Lundqvist for the winning goal.

That set up the shootout. After four consecutive saves -- Fleury denied Zherdev and Nigel Dawes, while Lundqvist turned aside Kris Letang and Petr Sykora -- Fredrik Sjostrom beat Fleury to put New York in front.

Crosby had a chance to extend the shootout, but Lundqvist stopped him and the Rangers earned a small measure of revenge for their five-game loss to the Penguins in the second round of the playoffs this spring.

"We weren't happy with that playoff series," Sjostrom said.

Darryl Sydor made it 1-0 with his first goal in 47 games, a streak dating to Dec. 27, at 9:04 of the first, when his shot from the left point caromed off Rangers defensemen Michal Rozsival and Dmitri Kalinin in front of the net, then sailed behind Lundqvist.

Crosby didn't need any such fortune to put the Penguins up by two at 15:59 of the second; he simply swatted in a loose puck that was lying in the crease.

The Penguins preserved the lead by killing a five-on-three New York power play that lasted two minutes and, after allowing just one goal in each of the previous three games, seemed well-positioned to close out the game in the third.

But the Penguins became tentative, and Markus Naslund converted a Scott Gomez feed during a power play at 5:09 to make it 2-1. That goal got New York back into the game, but didn't have the same effect on the Penguins, who stuck with their passive approach.

"We stopped forechecking and stopped moving our feet," Sydor said. "When you do that against a team with speed and some skill, they're going to come through you."

Which the Rangers did. In waves.

Although Fleury had a memorable third-period gaffe of his own -- he picked up a delay-of-game minor for playing the puck outside the trapezoid behind his net at 10:48 -- it didn't cost the Penguins a goal. And it certainly didn't negate his 42 saves.

Fact is, he's the biggest reason the Penguins got a point. No matter how unsatisfying it seems today.