Sidney Crosby ends slump in OT as Pittsburgh Penguins even East finals

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan shortened his bench late in the game to get star Sidney Crosby going, and he might have lengthened the Eastern Conference finals because of it.

Crosby ended an eight-game streak without a goal only 40 seconds into overtime, and the Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 Monday night to even the conference finals at one win apiece.

The Penguins rallied after giving up a two-goal lead.

Crosby has never gone nine consecutive playoff games without a goal -- and he still hasn't, and the Penguins now go to Tampa for Game 3 on Wednesday with the best-of-seven series level. The goal was his first in overtime in 113 career playoff games -- and the fastest overtime goal in Penguins playoff history.

"We were pretty confident all game that (we) deserved to win the game and that if we kept doing what we were doing we would win the game -- and that's what happened," Penguins rookie goalie Matt Murray said. "We played with desperation but never with panic, and that's what I like about our team."

On the game-winning goal, defenseman Brian Dumoulin kept the puck in play along the boards and passed it low in the zone to Bryan Ryan, who heard Crosby calling for it. Rust fed him the puck, and Crosby's shot sailed under the crossbar for his fourth of the playoffs.

"I didn't think Rusty saw me, so I tried to let him know I was there," Crosby said. "He had a good chance to maybe shoot it too, but he made a perfect pass -- and to an area where I could get a quick shot away."

The Penguins, showing the desperation of a team in danger of going down 2-0 going into the other team's building, outshot the Lightning 19-6 over the third period and overtime.

"I thought as the game wore on, we were better and better," Sullivan said.

Sullivan pressed to get the game-winner by playing Crosby and the slumping Evgeni Malkin (0 goals in 7 games) together or with different linemates than usual in an effort to get one or the other going.

"I moved a few people into Sid's line or Geno's line, to try to create a little bit of spark with those guys," he said.

Murray won the battle of 21-year-old backup goaltenders against Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy, making 19 saves and not allowing a goal after giving up two in a span of 2:33 in the first period while filling in again for the injured Ben Bishop.

"I was fighting it a bit ... but you're going to have those nights and I was able to battle through it mentally," said Murray, who has yet to lose successive games in his career. "I thought I made a couple of big saves in the third."

Murray also made a big one by stopping Alex Killorn after he got in behind the Pittsburgh defense in the closing 10 seconds of the second period.

"It was a huge save," Sullivan said.

Vasilevskiy was exceptional in defeat, making 38 saves, but it wasn't good enough on a night when his teammates couldn't produce a goal in the final two periods or overtime.

"He was great," said Jonathan Drouin, who scored late in the first to tie it at 2. "But we had some costly turnovers in the neutral zone. And if you make turnovers at the blue line against that team, they'll make you pay."

Teammate Brian Boyle said Vasilevskiy was "fantastic ... he gave us a chance."

The Penguins got off to exactly the start they wanted in what could be viewed as a must-win game, getting goals from Matt Cullen and Phil Kessel less than 10 minutes into the game.

However, with Vasilevskiy turning aside several more excellent scoring chances -- including Chris Kunitz on a rush off the opening faceoff -- the Lightning came back after killing off Alex Killorn's holding penalty at 13:23.

"He (Vasilevskiy) was the reason the game went into overtime in the first place," coach Jon Cooper said.

Defenseman Anton Stralman, back in the lineup for the first time since breaking his left leg on March 25, got the comeback started by gathering a bouncing puck and lifting it under the crossbar at 16:37.

Stralman needed only a moment to get open when Crosby and Conor Sheary bumped into each other just as Crosby was skating toward Stralman, who scored his fifth goal in four games against Pittsburgh this season.

Drouin tied it 2:33 later, taking J.T. Brown's pass at mid-ice, skating to the top of the left circle for a wrist shot and beating Murray inside the far post. Drouin, in the lineup because of Steven Stamkos' injury, has 11 points in 12 playoff games after getting 10 in 21 regular-season games.

Cullen, who is having an excellent postseason for Pittsburgh at age 39, scored his fourth of the playoffs at 4:32 of the first, off a rebound of an Eric Fehr shot.

Kessel scored his 19th goal in 35 playoff games -- and sixth of these playoffs -- about five minutes later after Carl Hagelin's shot rebounded to Nick Bonino, whose pass deflected off Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr's skate directly to Kessel.

NOTES: Penguins RW Patric Hornqvist took a puck to the head during warmups, but remained in the lineup. ... Lightning RW Ryan Callahan was not suspended for his punishing hit on Penguins D Kris Letang in Game 1, but was held out with the flu. ... Lightning D Anton Stralman played for the first time since breaking his left leg March 25. ... G Andrei Vasilevskiy made his first start since April 9, even though Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop (lower body injury) apparently was not seriously injured while playing a puck in the first period of Game 1 on Friday. ... Lightning captain Steven Stamkos (blood clot surgery on April 4) is skating again but was not cleared to play. ... Pittsburgh held out D Olli Maatta, who was a minus-1 in Game 1, and replaced him with Justin Schultz. ... The Lightning scratched RW Mike Blunden, D Nikita Nesterov, D Matt Taormina and D Luke Witkowski. The Penguins held out Maatta, G Jeff Zatkoff, D Derrick Pouliot, RW Beau Bennett and RW Oskar Sundqvist.