PITTSBURGH (AP) — John Klingberg capped off a frantic late rally by scoring his second goal of the game 2:57 into overtime to lift the San Jose Sharks to an improbable 6-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Klingberg’s seventh of the season off a feed from Macklin Celebrini gave the Sharks their first victory in the franchise’s 34-year history when trailing by four goals in the third.
San Jose trailed 5-1 with less than 14 minutes to go. Klingberg and William Eklund scored to get the Sharks back in it, and Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli beat Pittsburgh goalie Arturs Silovs with the goaltender pulled to force overtime.
Toffoli, whose tying goal came with 1:38 to play, finished with two goals and two assists. Celebrini had a goal and two assists to push his season point total to 44.
Yaroslav Askarov withstood a second-period deluge from Pittsburgh and finished with 38 saves as San Jose finished a five-game road trip at 3-2.
Sidney Crosby scored a goal and added an assist to move within two of Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux's franchise record for career points. Crosby beat Askarov in the first period for his 19th goal of the season and assisted on Bryan Rust's power-play goal in the second to push his career point total to 1,721.
Kevin Hayes, Rutger McGroarty and Anthony Mantha also scored for the Penguins. Rickard Rakell played 22:12 in his return from a 20-game absence due to a hand injury. Silovs stopped 26 shots as Pittsburgh dropped its fourth straight.
The Penguins fell to 1-8 in overtime and are winless through three games of a season-long five-game homestand. The first loss came against Anaheim on Tuesday when the Ducks forced overtime with one-tenth of a second left.
The loss marked the first time the Penguins blew a four-goal lead in the third period since March 10, 1976.
Sharks: Begin a three-game homestand on Tuesday against Calgary.
Penguins: Host Utah on Sunday.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
