Penguins coach Mike Sullivan surprised a lot of people when he started Jeff Zatkoff in goal against Florida Saturday night.
And Zatkoff surprised a few more when he made 40 saves to help the Penguins beat the Panthers, 3-2, in overtime at the BB&T Center.
The Penguins rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the final six minutes of regulation and got the game-winner from Kris Letang during a power play at 1:27 of overtime.
The victory was the Penguins’ fifth in their past six games, while Florida had a five-game winning streak snapped.
The Penguins (26-18-7) have moved back into a tie with New Jersey for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
After years in which the only significant change for their franchise was the name of their home rink, the Panthers sit atop the Atlantic Division and have developed into a major force this season.
The days of covering large tracts of seats on the upper deck with tarpaulins -- and of routinely looking up at most of the other Eastern Conference teams in the standings -- appear to be over.
Florida attracted it seventh sellout crowd of the season Saturday night, two more than it drew in all of 2014-15, and Sullivan believes there’s nothing fluky about the Panthers’ evolution into a quality team.
“They have a lot of young players,” he said. “They’ve drafted well. They have some young players here who have gone through a little bit of the process of what it takes to play in this league and now they’re starting to grow into those NHL players.”
The Penguins played for the second night in a row without center Evgeni Malkin, who has an undisclosed injury.
Sullivan was noncommittal about Malkin’s availability for the Penguins’ game against Anaheim Monday at 7:08pm EST at Consol Energy Center.
“I’m not sure,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to re-evaluate that.”
Jeff Zatkoff, who had replaced No. 1 goalie Marc-Andre Fleury midway through the Penguins’ 6-3 loss at Tampa Friday, was a surprise starter against the Panthers.
Fleury is coming off subpar performances against Ottawa and the Lightning, and Sullivan said he informed Fleury Saturday morning that he would have the night off.
“Marc’s a big part of this team,” Sullivan said. “He’s an important guy for us. We had a good conversation.”
Zatkoff was credited with 20 saves during the scoreless first period, when the Penguins launched nine at Luongo.
Florida had the only two power plays during the first 20 minutes, but was unable to convert on either. Sullivan worked Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust into the penalty-killing rotation during those two short-handed situations.
Zatkoff made an excellent stop on a breakaway by Vincent Trocheck at 2:54 of the second period, but gave up a bad goal during a power play a few minutes later.
Penguins alum Jussi Jokinen put Florida up, 1-0, at 6:03, when his shot from the bottom of the left circle caromed off Zatkoff and into the net.
The Penguins had a chance to pull even when they were awarded a power play at 9:04 of the third, but gave up a goal just 11 seconds after beginning the man-advantage.