NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jordan Staal scored his second goal of the game at 3:42 in overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for a 5-4 victory over a shot-shy New York Rangers on Thursday.

Staal deflected Evgeni Malkin's slap shot into the net and the assist extended the Russian's point streak to a career-high tying 15 games as the defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh (38-22-4) also moved top of the Atlantic Division.

"That's a pretty good example of how we want to play the game," Pens coach Dan Bylsma told reporters. "You'd like to tilt the ice so it's 70/30 and wear teams down. The feeling in our dressing room was (winning) was going to be inevitable."

Mike Rupp and Alex Goligoski scored in the second and third periods respectively to send the game into overtime after the Penguins had trailed 4-2.

Four goals were scored in an eventful first period that ended in a 2-2 tie but the opening frame was highlighted by a major scrum between players of both teams following New York defenseman Marc Staal's tussle with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

Once calm was restored, Michal Rozsival and Brandon Dubinsky scored in the second to open a two-goal lead for the Rangers (29-27-8), who stayed in the game thanks to a career-high 50 saves from goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

"Hank (Lundqvist) was outstanding for us tonight," Rangers coach John Tortorella said. "At the end of the night, we grabbed a point out of here. Although it was an ugly one, it is a point."

The Penguins dominated the action and fired 55 shots to New York's 16 while winning for the eighth time in the last nine matchups between the teams.

Rangers center Artem Anisimov opened the scoring at 2:17 in the first before Pittsburgh went up 2-1 following goals by Chris Kunitz and Staal's first score of the night.

Chris Drury tied it for the home team with a power-play goal at 14:39 in the opening period.

Without leading scorer Marian Gaborik (cut knee), New York still sent an early message of their physical approach with the first-period blow on Crosby, who crumbled to the ground in the testy affair between the Atlantic opponents.

The win gave the Penguins (80) a one-point edge over the New Jersey Devils (79), who have two games in hand.

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)