SUNRISE, Fla. — Mike Matheson scored with 46 seconds left in overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at BB&T Center on Thursday.
Matheson, who earlier in overtime was stopped on a breakaway, scored with a backhand redirection of a Jonathan Huberdeau pass.
“I was a little frustrated after not scoring on the breakaway after (Huberdeau) made such a great play on it,” Matheson said. “He’s such a great playmaker, that’s pretty much all you have to do is make eye contact with him and he’ll understand what you mean by it. He’s a great player and made another great pass there.”
[WATCH: All Penguins vs. Panthers highlights]
Penguins center Sidney Crosby played his 915th NHL game, tying Mario Lemieux for most in Pittsburgh history. Crosby can set the record when the Penguins face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
The Penguins have lost three in a row and seven of 10 (3-6-1).
Florida is 5-4 in overtime this season; Pittsburgh is 4-5.
“It’s a big point,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re disappointed we didn’t earn the extra one in the overtime because we’re capable in that situation. We think we’ve got real good personnel for 3-on-3 overtime. For whatever reason, we haven’t fared as well this year in that aspect of our team game.”
Evgenii Dadonov and Colton Sceviour also scored for the Panthers (22-22-8), who are 5-2-0 in their past seven games. Aleksander Barkov had two assists, and Roberto Luongo made 29 saves in his 482nd victory, moving him to within two of Ed Belfour for third place on the NHL’s all-time list.
Video: PIT@FLA: Dadonov sweeps carom past DeSmith for PPG
Jared McCann, facing the Panthers for the first time since the four-player trade on Feb. 1 that sent him and Nick Bjugstad to Pittsburgh for Derick Brassard and Riley Sheahan and three draft picks, scored a short-handed goal for the Penguins (28-19-7).
“I thought he had a strong game,” Sullivan said. “He can really skate. He was real good on the penalty kill. He gets a huge goal for us, short-handed. I thought his line was better 5-on-5 tonight. I think he’s getting more comfortable with how we’re trying to play. He’s getting better with each game, but I thought he had a real strong game tonight.”
Marcus Pettersson scored, Kris Letang had two assists and Casey DeSmith made 39 saves in place of injured starter Matt Murray.
Dadonov opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 5:22 with a backhand after Matheson’s shot from the point bounced off the end boards to the front of the net.
It was Dadonov’s first goal in nine games.
“He’s snake-bitten and getting upset and frustrated by it,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “I’ve had lots of talks with him. He’s working hard and he finally got paid off tonight, which is nice to see. Our power play has been doing a lot of that, getting point shots and seconds and thirds around the net. Good to see that one go in.”
McCann tied the score 1-1 at 13:51 of the second period with a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 after the Penguins caught the Panthers in a line change.
Video: PIT@FLA: McCann nets SHG against old club
Sceviour made it 2-1 at 17:32 when he redirected a pass from Barkov, who got his 300th NHL point.
Pettersson tied it 2-2 at 8:17 of the third period with a slap shot from the point for his first goal of the season and his second goal in 78 career games.
“It’s real disappointing when we don’t win, for sure,” Petterson said about getting his first goal. “They did a great job in there not allowing him to see the shot. If I can get just get it through, it has a great chance of going in.”
They said it
“We didn’t execute tonight. We want to make sure we’re playing the same way every night.” — Penguins center Sidney Crosby
“Even when they got that last goal we turned it up and played in their end and didn’t get rattled. We had a bunch of guys grinding it out tonight.” — Panthers coach Bob Boughner
Need to know
The Penguins failed to record a shot during a 58-second 5-on-3 power play early in the second period. … The Penguins were 0-for-3 on the power play, making them 1-for-18 in their past five games. … Bjugstad skated on the top line with Crosby for the first two periods before being replaced in the third by Bryan Rust. … Barkov became the fifth player to get 300 points for the Panthers, joining Huberdeau, Olli Jokinen, Stephen Weiss and Scott Mellanby. … Luongo played his 1,028th NHL game, moving him to within one of Patrick Roy for second place on the all-time list.
What’s next
Penguins: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7 p.m. NHL Network, SUN, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)
Panthers: At the Washington Capitals on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSWA, FS-F, NHL.TV)
from A Viral Update http://bit.ly/2SiJa3f
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