Sidney Crosby didn't do all the damage to the Panthers this time around, but he did enough.

The Penguins' star captain put the finishing touches on the Panthers for the second time in a month Monday, scoring in overtime to lead Pittsburgh to a 3-2 win at BankAtlantic Center.

Crosby had plenty of room on the ice to work as the Panthers were down a skater. Nathan Horton was charged with a controversial four-minute high-sticking call in overtime, leaving the Panthers short-handed against a pretty good offensive bunch.

``They have a pretty good power play,'' defenseman Keith Ballard deadpanned.

Monday marked the second time in a month that the Panthers went into the third period holding a 2-0 lead on the Penguins, only to see Crosby & Co. ruin the night.

On Oct. 23, the Penguins got two goals from Crosby in regulation and one from him in a shootout to get a 3-2 win in the Steel City. On Monday, the Penguins did it a little differently, as Pascal Dupuis scored at 4:49 of the third and Michael Rupp pushed one past Tomas Vokoun with 2:32 left.

That left the heroics up to Crosby again.

And the Panthers talked about what might transpire in the third during the second intermission. Michael Frolik, who set up Ballard's second-period goal, said the talk was about how hard the Panthers would have to play to hold off the defending champs.

For the first few minutes, the Panthers did just that. Then the Penguins kept coming and coming and the Panthers didn't have much of an answer.

The Panthers took two shots in the opening 10 minutes of the third and one more the rest of the way. Pittsburgh took aim with 16 shots at Vokoun with six more in overtime.

``If we're going to be a good team, we need to hold a lead,'' Ballard said. ``We did some good things out there, but we needed a win.''

The Panthers were trying to win their fourth consecutive game and looked good early on, and for a while, it looked like the Panthers might get their first win over a defending Stanley Cup champion since beating Carolina on Oct. 11, 2006. Monday's game came on the heels of the team's three-game road sweep with wins in Buffalo, N.Y., Detroit and New York.

Those victories away from Sunrise have given the Panthers plenty of confidence and their play showed that Monday.

Wearing new uniforms that might have reminded some of either the Penguins alternates or the University of North Carolina football team, the Panthers started off well enough, taking a 1-0 lead in the first when Stephen Weiss and Horton hooked up again.

Horton, who has three goals with four assists in his past six games, took a nice feed from Weiss and sent it zipping it past Fluery with 2:27 left in the opening frame.

Florida then padded the lead a little bit in the second as Keith Ballard got his first goal of the season by charging up the center of the ice and pouncing on a pass from Michael Frolik at the 10:21 mark.

But as far as offense goes, that's about all the Panthers had left. They hit a few posts here and there, but the rest of the night belonged to the Penguins. Pittsburgh outshot Florida 45-21.

Florida continues its three-game homestand Wednesday against the New York Rangers -- a team the Panthers beat 3-2 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

``It's good that we got the one point, but we really should have gotten two,'' defenseman Jordan Leopold said. ``They have some good players over there and unfortunately we couldn't get it done in overtime.''