Overcoming Adversity - Pens Win in OT

More late game heroics for the Penguins tonight up in Portland. Chad Kolarik scored on a rebound chance 38 seconds into overtime to ensure the two points for the Penguins, who get back on track with a big win heading into the third game of this 10 day road trip.

I originally thought Paul Thompson scored the game winning goal, but Kolarik got the last stick on the puck before it crossed the line. Thompson got the primary assist on the goal and Alex Grant added a secondary assist.

After the goal, Pirates goaltender Mike Lee was frustrated. So frustrated that he took a swing at Bobby Farnham on his way off the ice, leading to the benches clearing before things eventually calmed down.

After letting a 2-0 lead slip away in the 2nd period, Zach Sill tied the game at three early in the third, after a siege of hacking and whacking in the crease alongside Bobby Farnham.

"We were going to the net hard all night," Sill said. "Mormina threw one on net and I was able to smack in the rebound."

"We are on a long road trip right now," Sill added. "We lost a tough one last night in Providence so tonight was a big win for the guys."

Here's what Farnham had to say about tonight's game:

"That's a huge win for us. We were up 2-0, then it was 2-2. We battled back after it was 3-2, we tie it 3-3. That's a huge win for us going into tomorrow."

Tonight's game was a homecoming of sorts for defenseman Brian Dumoulin. The Biddeford, Maine native got quite a few cheers from the Portland crowd when he was announced as a starter for tonight's game. Here's what Dumoulin had to say about returning to Maine:

"It was exciting for me," Dumoulin said. "I haven't played here since high school so coming back to Maine was awesome. Not that there's added pressure, but you always want to perform well, especially when there's going to be a lot of people there watching you. It was awesome to get the two points."

More Dumoulin:

"We knew that they were going to push back. They're a good team. They scored on a couple of chances they had. It was important for us, where its tied going to the 3rd period, that we got to our game first and we played hard. I feel like we did that. We came out and had some good shifts and were fortunate enough to come up with the win in overtime."

As noted by Jonathan Bombulie, tonight was the first time in the last 19 games that the Penguins scored two goals in the first period of a game. I asked Trevor Smith about that and here's what he had to say:

"We knew coming into this game we had to come out strong and I think we did that," Smith said. "We got into some penalty trouble in the 2nd but it was a good moral victory for the boys: come back and score a few goals, four goals on the board is nice, and to win in overtime is always exciting. A little melee at the end is always fun to get the boys together."

The Penguins travel to Manchester tonight and will face the Monarchs at the Verizon Wireless Arena at 5 p.m. EST Sunday evening.