Penguins beat Rangers 3-2 in OT after lackluster start

2012-03-17 05:36:27

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Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette
Georges Laraque engages New York's Colton Orr in his first fight as a Penguin yesterday in the first period.By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

If the Penguins had been able to script this moment, Colby Armstrong and Maxime Talbot would have been in the middle of their bench, wondering when -- or if -- they'd make it onto the ice.

Probably watching Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin -- maybe both -- try to work a little overtime alchemy. To give their team a victory it had done so little to earn for much of the afternoon.

But Crosby and Malkin were in the locker room, having adjourned there for skate repairs at the end of regulation. And by the time they were able to return, it was too late.

Too late to do anything except congratulate Armstrong on scoring the goal that gave the Penguins a 3-2 victory against the New York Rangers at Mellon Arena, that is.

So it didn't matter that the Penguins (37-21-10) had spotted yet another highly motivated opponent a multiple-goal lead. That they again wiped their feet on the axiom about the importance of playing 60 strong minutes. That their top two talents were stranded on the wrong side of the glass when the outcome was decided.

There's not a lot of logic there. Just a couple more points that could look pretty nice when the regular season ends in four weeks.

"Don't ask questions," Crosby said. "Sometimes, things just happen for a reason."

One of the main reasons this time was that the Penguins' power play -- as menacing as a sedated kitten during the first two periods, when it went 0 for 6 -- scored twice in a span of three minutes, 24 seconds early in the third to transform a 2-0 deficit into a 2-2 tie.

Malkin made the score 2-1 when he beat Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist on the short side from above the right dot at 3:32, and Crosby jammed in a backhander from the right side of the crease at 6:56 for his 100th point of the season.

Just that quickly, everything the Penguins had done so poorly -- or not done at all -- during the first 40 minutes was wiped away.

"The power play got us going," Armstrong said. "We got the first one and that got the building rocking, and the guys fed off that."

The Penguins' comeback coincided with the departure of Rangers right winger Jaromir Jagr, who did not play after the second intermission because of an unspecified injury to his right leg.

Jagr had accounted for six of New York's 21 shots in the first two periods, and provides the most volatile dimension in its offense.

"The one thing Jagr can do for you is create offense," New York coach Tom Renney said. "He can score the winning goal or set it up."

While Armstrong doesn't have Jagr's pedigree, he certainly can score winning goals. Does it pretty often, actually. Especially when games stretch beyond the third period.

The goal yesterday was just his 10th of the season, but his third in overtime, tying a franchise record.

It also was entirely accidental, for when Armstrong threw the puck toward the Rangers net from inside the right circle, having it fly past Lundqvist's glove wasn't part of the plan.

"I just tried to pass it to [Talbot]," he said. "Fake a shot and hopefully get the goalie to bite and try to put it through. I just got lucky."

And New York defenseman Marek Malik didn't. Armstrong's shot glanced off his stick blade, which altered its trajectory and caused it to sail past Lundqvist at 1:19.

"I calculated that [angle] in my head," Armstrong said.

He was kidding, of course. Which is probably what his teammates will think coach Michel Therrien is doing the next time he lectures them on the importance of playing three solid periods.

It's true that some, if not most, teams must produce close to 60 minutes of good hockey if they want two points. The Penguins, though, have been getting away with spreading 60 over three or four games, and picking up six or seven or eight points for their trouble.

"It's a bad habit," goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.

One the Penguins haven't come close to breaking, even though discussing its perils -- and how they consistently find a way to dodge them -- is pretty much part of their postgame routine by now.

"It's harder and harder to explain," Crosby said. "It just seems to happen."

No matter how it's been scripted.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette
Maxime Talbot, left, Ryan Whitney, center, and Colby Armstrong celebrate Armstrong's winning goal yesterday against the Rangers at Mellon Arena.
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