NEW YORK (AP) — Evgeni Malkin scored on a deflection 5:58 into the third overtime, giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.
Jake Guentzel scored twice and Bryan Rust had a goal and two assists for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby also had two assists. Casey DeSmith had 48 saves before leaving the game midway through the second overtime. Louis Domingue, who appeared in only two games during the regular season, came on and had 17 saves.
On the winning goal, Malkin was positioned in front of the net when he tipped a long shot by John Marino over Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist, and Adam Fox and Andrew Copp also scored for the Rangers. Mika Zibanejad had two assists. Shesterkin finished with 79 saves, second to the NHL record of 85 saves by Columbus' Joonas Korpisalo in the 2020 playoffs.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in New York before shifting to Pittsburgh for two games.
CLIMBING
Crosby now has 124 assists in the playoffs, passing Jaromir Jagr for ninth place on the NHL's career list. ... Kreider got his 24th postseason goal, breaking a tie with Steve Vickers for the sixth place in franchise history.
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