PITTSBURGH (AP) – Bill Guerin scored his second goal of the game after Pittsburgh went on a rare two-man advantage in overtime, and the Penguins went up two games in their first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers, winning 3-2 on Friday night.

Guerin, at 38 the oldest player on a mostly young team, took Sergei Gonchar’s pass from center point and skated toward the net from the low left circle, faked a pass and beat goalie Martin Biron on a shot that deflected off the left post and into the net 18:29 into overtime.

Guerin also scored the goal that tied it at 1 late in the second period, and Evgeni Malkin tied it at 2 with 3:37 remaining in the third after rookie Darroll Powe’s goal put the determined Flyers up early in the period.

The Penguins will take a 2-0 series lead to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Sunday, as they did in winning last year’s Eastern Conference finals against the Flyers.

The overtime game was the first between the in-state rivals since Keith Primeau’s goal decided the Flyers’ 2-1, five-OT win that started on May 4, 2000, and ended in the early morning hours of May 5. That game was the NHL’s longest in the last 73 years.

This game was much shorter.

The Flyers initially went on the power play in overtime when Hal Gill was called for cross-checking, but an identical penalty on Mike Knuble and a slashing call on Claude Giroux 30 seconds later gave Pittsburgh a two-man edge that would have lasted 1:29. Guerin scored with 27 seconds left in the two-man.

Philadelphia avoided the numerous penalties and breakdowns it had in the 4-1 loss in Game 1 and were in position to tie the series after rookie Powe’s go-ahead goal, only to get tripped up again by penalties.

The Penguins, given their third power play in regulation after having eight Wednesday, tied it at 16:23 of the third when Kris Letang’s shot from the point deflected off Malkin and past Biron for Malkin’s second of the series.

Pittsburgh had a chance to tie it only because goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made an improbable save several minutes before, scrambling from one side of the crease to the other to stick out his right skate and deflect Jeff Carter’s shot toward an unguarded side of the net.

With their season perhaps on the line if they went down 2-0, the Flyers responded the way coach John Stevens said they needed to following their undisciplined Game 1 loss. All that was missing was a win.

The Flyers didn’t worry about retaliating or sending messages or trying to outhit Pittsburgh, only trying to beat them – and it nearly worked. They pressed the play from the start, got the important first goal from Scott Hartnell, then kept pressuring even after Pittsburgh tied it on Guerin’s 29th career playoff goal. His 30th would be even bigger.

The Flyers came back to take a 2-1 lead when Powe, playing more because oft-penalized forward Dan Carcillo was suspended for a shot to Max Talbot’s head with seconds remaining in Game 1, steered a wrist shot from the left circle past Fleury 2:09 into the third.

Powe is a former Princeton player who had six goals during the season, one an empty-netter during the Flyers’ 3-1 win in Pittsburgh on March 22.

Philadelphia’s under-control persistence finally paid off with Hartnell’s power-play goal at 13:26 of the first and only its fifth lead after the first period in 26 games.

The way the Flyers were pressing the play, the Penguins were in jeopardy of leaving Pittsburgh tied two games into a playoff series for the first time since they lost to Montreal in six games in 1998. But they tied it after coach Dan Bylsma put Malkin and captain Sidney Crosby on the same line, and it paid off with Guerin’s first goal.

Notes: Pittsburgh has won Game 2 in nine of its last 13 series and has won 10 of its last 12 home playoff games. … The Flyers are 34-26 in playoff Game 2.

AP-ES-04-17-09 2251EDT

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