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NEW YORK -- The Pittsburgh Penguins have plenty of familiar names up and down their roster. Now they are excelling even with some prominent players on the shelf. Sidney Crosby didnt score any goals against the New York Rangers on Wednesday night -- not in regulation, overtime or the shootout -- but he assisted on two and helped the Penguins bounce back from a blown late lead and earn a 4-3 victory. Brandon Sutter was the star this time as the Penguins played without injured centre Evgeni Malkin and a slew of hurt or suspended defencemen. Sutter scored one of Pittsburghs two third-period goals that gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead, and then netted the only tally in the five-round shootout. "If everybody got healthy tomorrow, youd talk about a significant group of guys getting back in the lineup," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "I dont think how we play -- expectations, style of play, game plan -- really changes much by getting one or two players back or getting everybody back." The Penguins will be without Malkin again on Thursday when they host Minnesota, but suspended forward James Neal is expected to return after serving a five-game ban. Still, Pittsburgh has been relying on fill-ins and hasnt missed a beat. The Eastern Conference-leading Penguins have won five straight and are 10-1-1 in their last 12. "Thats the good part about having these guys come in and play," Bylsma said. "They know exactly how to play, and they know what the expectation is. Theyve gone out and theyve played that way." Sutter gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead just 1:01 after Pascal Dupuis snapped a 1-1 tie, but Pittsburgh couldnt hold the edge. Dupuis gave the Penguins their second lead, off a feed from Crosby at 5:25, and Sutter used a strong individual effort to make it a two-goal advantage at 6:26. Chris Kunitz had a goal and assist, and Crosby increased his NHL-leading point total to 49. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots through overtime and then five in the shootout. Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard rallied the Rangers with goals 5:31 apart to tie it with 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, couldnt take advantage of that power play as they did on Brassards tying goal. New York earned a standings point with its second straight shootout after not being forced to the tiebreaker round all season. Lundqvist shook off Kunitzs hit, he just couldnt carry the Rangers all the way back for a win. "It was a big point," Lundqvist said. "I played a pretty good game, I think. I just hate losing in the shootout." Zuccarello started the comeback when he shoved in a rebound of defenceman John Moores shot that trickled between Fleurys pads into the crease at 12:43. Brassard made it 3-3 when he ripped a shot from the bottom of the left circle into the top right corner of the net. It came 57 seconds after Pittsburghs Matt Niskanen went off for high-sticking. Carl Hagelin scored for New York in the second period, and Lundqvist made 30 saves through overtime in his seventh straight start, but the Rangers dropped to 1-3-2 on their team-record, nine-game homestand. New York was looking to win two straight, building off a shootout victory over Calgary on Sunday. "We put some points together, and if we do this continuously, I think guys will start to feel a lot better about themselves," Rangers forward Brad Richards said. The Penguins stayed hot despite also missing injured defencemen Kris Letang, Rob Scuderi, Paul Martin, and Brooks Orpik, and suspended defenceman Deryk Engelland, who received a five-game ban Wednesday. The Rangers, who beat Pittsburgh 5-1 in the season-series opener on Nov. 6, fell to 2-14-1 when they allow the first goal. Hagelin, who had gone eight games without a goal before he scored Sunday, tied it 1-1 with 4:25 left in the second period. It was his seventh this season Pittsburgh had taken a 1-0 lead on its second power play of the period and the game 2:51 earlier on Kunitzs 18th goal and team-leading ninth with a man advantage. NOTES: Penguins D Philip Samuelsson played his second NHL game, two nights after making his debut. His father, Ulf, is a Rangers assistant coach. ... Kunitz has points in 10 of 12 games: seven goals and six assists. ... Moore had two assists to increase his season point total to seven. Bryan Shaw Jersey . The stakes were higher, the competition more fierce and the atmosphere was that of a playoff game - something the young, upstart Raptors have five weeks to better prepare themselves for or the result will be eerily similar. 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The group of Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Sergei Fedorov, & Slava Kozlov were a dominant force for The Wings at one point in the 90s.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins hope to rebound from a loss in the opener of the Eastern Conference second round series when they host the rival New York Rangers in Sundays Game 2 from CONSOL Energy Center. New York placed second in the Metropolitan Division this season, finishing 13 points behind the Penguins, but the Rangers were able to strike first in this best-of-seven set, taking Game 1 by a 3-2 score in overtime. Derick Brassard scored at 3:06 of the extra session to lift the Rangers to victory, although the end of the game was far from conventional. Brassard knew he scored off a feed from Benoit Pouliot, but the game went on. Seconds later, with the Penguins still scrambling around in their zone, Brassard set up Pouliot for what appeared to be the winning goal. However, the original shot by Brassard was reviewed and showed the puck clearly going underneath the crossbar and inside the left post. Because the puck sprung back out so quickly, it wasnt evident that it was a good goal and play continued, albeit momentarily. "It was all (Pouliots) play," Brassard said. "First of all, he cut (off) the pass behind the net and right away he found me in front of the net. At first, I thought it went in. I thought it went under the bar and the ref said it wasnt in. The puck came back to me and (Pouliot) was open. It was a great feeling." New York opened a playoff series with an OT win for the first time since Game 1 of the Patrick Division Finals on Apr. 17, 1986 at Washington . The Blueshirts have won eight of the last 10 playoff series in which they won Game 1, including four of the last six playoff series in which they won Game 1 on the road. Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves for the Rangers, including one on Lee Stempniak in the final 11 seconds of regulation. New York won a Game 7 at home against Philadelphia on Wednesday to advance to the second round for the third consecutive year.dddddddddddd The Flyers and Rangers had played Game 6 in Philly on Tuesday, so Fridays tilt was New Yorks third test in three different cities over the span of four days. When the Rangers host Pittsburgh in Game 3 on Monday it will mark five games in seven days for New York. Despite New Yorks recent workload and the fact that the Penguins had three days off ahead of Fridays opener, the home club was the team that looked flat for large stretches of Game 1. "For whatever reason, we didnt come out hard enough," said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby. "I thought those goals in the second definitely gave us a boost. I thought from there on we had some good chances. Pretty even after that." Stempniak and James Neal scored second-period goals for Pittsburgh, which outshot the visitors by a 36-27 margin in the loss. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24-of-27 shots for the Pens after struggling at times during his teams first- round win over Columbus. "They got the first one tonight. Its disappointing, but (we) got to have a short memory," said Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma. Both teams were 0-for-4 on the power play. The Rangers have failed to score 25 straight times with the man advantage dating back to its first-round series against Philadelphia. The Penguins have won all four previous playoff series with the Rangers. After Fridays loss, Pittsburgh fell to 16-5 all-time against New York in the postseason. Pittsburgh defenceman Brooks Orpik missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury and he is questionable for Game 2. Orpik also sat out Game 6 against Columbus and Robert Bortuzzo could fill in for him on Sunday for a third straight game. ' ' '