Honestly, I thought this one was all over at the end of the first period. The Florida Panthers were sitting on a 2-0 lead, both by Steven Reinprecht. The Panthers succeeded in frustrating the Pens through the second period which was a drab scoreless twenty minutes for both teams. So, would the Penguins’ second loss of the season be so bad?

Sidney Crosby had anything but losing on his mind for his 300th game in the NHL. He made all goals for the Penguins.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The Penguins came from behind to beat the Florida Panthers, 3-2, in a shootout tonight at Mellon Arena, extending their winning streak to seven games and their record to 9-1.

Sidney Crosby, who was playing in his 300th NHL game, had a huge game. He scored both Penguins goals and the was the only player to score in the shootout — all after Florida had taken a 2-0 lead.

The Penguins were playing without defenseman Sergei Gonchar for the first time since his wrist was broken.

Florida’s Steven Reinprecht scored twice in the first period.

At 12:39, he slid the puck past Penguins goaltender Brent Johnson from the near bottom edge of the right circle for a power-play goal.

Reinprecht gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead at 15:16 when he knocked in the puck from the crease after Nathan Horton’s shot squired just behind Johnson.

After a scoreless second period, Crosby scored to cut the Penguins’ deficit in half with a power-play goal at 2:14 of the third period.

Crosby later tied the game at 2-2 with a shorthanded goal at 16:41 of the third period, and it was pretty, converting a feed from Evgeni Malkin, slamming the puck home right behind Panthers’ Tomas Vokoun. It was the first short-handed goal of Crosby’s career.

The game went to a shootout when neither team scored in OT.

From the AP:

In the shootout, Crosby moved in slowly on Vokoun and made three moves to his forehand before finally tucking it into the net as Vokoun dove to his left.

Crosby improved to 3-for-3 in shootouts this season with his 10th career game-deciding shootout goal.

Crosby has 407 career points.