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New York • Brandon Sutter scored in the third period and then rescued the Penguins with the only goal of the shootout to lift Pittsburgh to a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
Sutter gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead just 1:01 after Pascal Dupuis snapped a 1-1 tie, but Pittsburgh couldn't hold the edge. It took until the fifth round of the shootout for the deadlock to be broken for good, and the Penguins skated off with their fifth straight victory.
Dupuis gave the Penguins their second lead of the night, off a feed from Sidney Crosby at 5:25, and Sutter used a strong individual effort to make it 3-1 at 6:26. Chris Kunitz had a goal and assist, Crosby had two assists to increase his NHL-leading points total 49, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots.
Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard rallied the Rangers late with goals 5:31 apart to tie it with only 1:46 left in regulation. Henrik Lundqvist got it to overtime and withstood a hard hit from Kunitz, who bowled him over in the extra session — striking the goalie in the head and taking a penalty for interference.
The Rangers, however, couldn't take advantage of that power play as they did on Brassard's tying goal. New York earned a standings point with its second straight shootout after not being forced to that tiebreaker all season.
Pittsburgh was without star center Evgeni Malkin, who missed his second straight game with a leg injury. —
NHL standings
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Boston 34 23 9 2 48 94 70
Montreal 36 21 12 3 45 91 76
Tampa Bay 34 20 11 3 43 93 82
Detroit 36 15 12 9 39 91 99
Toronto 36 17 16 3 37 99 105
Ottawa 36 14 16 6 34 101 118
Florida 35 13 17 5 31 81 110
Buffalo 34 8 23 3 19 59 98
Metropolitan Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Pittsburgh 36 25 10 1 51 112 78
Washington 34 18 13 3 39 107 102
Carolina 34 14 13 7 35 79 94
Philadelphia 34 15 15 4 34 81 93
N.Y. Rangers 35 16 17 2 34 79 95
New Jersey 35 14 15 6 34 83 87
Columbus 34 14 16 4 32 87 95
N.Y. Islanders 35 9 19 7 25 85 121
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Central Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Chicago 37 25 7 5 55 138 102
St. Louis 33 22 7 4 48 114 80
Colorado 33 22 10 1 45 96 78
Minnesota 36 20 11 5 45 84 83
Dallas 33 16 12 5 37 95 101
Nashville 34 16 15 3 35 78 95
Winnipeg 36 15 16 5 35 95 106
Pacific Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Anaheim 36 24 7 5 53 116 91
San Jose 34 21 7 6 48 112 84
Los Angeles 34 22 8 4 48 94 68
Vancouver 36 20 10 6 46 100 86
Phoenix 33 18 10 5 41 105 103
Calgary 34 13 16 5 31 86 108
Edmonton 35 11 21 3 25 93 120
NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss.
Wednesday's Games
Pittsburgh 4, N.Y. Rangers 3, SO
New Jersey 5, Ottawa 2