Sidney Crosby scored an overtime winner as the Pittsburgh Penguins downed the Tampa Bay Lightning to level their Eastern Conference finals series at 1-1.

Crosby ended his eight-game goal drought 40 seconds into overtime as Pittsburgh recovered from squandering a two-goal lead to haul themselves back into the series.

Crosby's goal was his first in overtime in 113 career playoff games and gives the Penguins hope as they head to Florida for Wednesday's Game Three.

"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."

Crosby meanwhile paid tribute to the vision of Bryan Rust for setting up his winner. Rust teed up Crosby perfectly for the goal after hearing the Canadian star's call.
"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 winner was fitting reward for a late spell of dominance by Pittsburgh, who outshot Tampa 19-6 over the third period and overtime.

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

All of the regulation time goals came in the first period. Matt Cullen and Phil Kessel struck early on to put Pittsburgh 2-0 up before Tampa Bay came roaring back with goals from Anton Stralman and Jonathan Drouin to make it 2-2 in a breathless opening spell.

Tampa Bay's young goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy proved a defiant last line of defense, thwarting Pittsburgh repeatedly to help take the game to overtime.

Vasilevskiy finished with a remarkable tally of 38 saves, but was finally broken by Crosby's overtime winner.

"He was the reason the game went into overtime in the first place," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper reflected afterwards when asked about Vasilevskiy's display.

Source: AFP