Apr 11 10:32p by Sean Keeley
Uniondale, NY (Sports Network) - Jordan Leopold scored in overtime to give Pittsburgh a 6-5 win over the Islanders and Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby scored twice to reach 51 goals and finish in a tie for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy on the final day of the regular season.
Crosby came in trailing both Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos by a single goal. Both his contemporaries were in action Sunday, and Stamkos managed an empty-net goal with 12.5 seconds left in a 3-1 win over Florida.
Still and all, Crosby now shares the league-lead in goals for the first time with his first-ever 50-goal campaign.
It's the first time players tied for the award since 2003-04, when Jarome Iginla, Ilya Kovalchuk and Rick Nash each had 41 goals.
The top overall pick in 2005 also assisted on three goals for a five-point game to tie Ovechkin for second place on the scoring list with 109 -- three behind Vancouver's Henrik Sedin.
Evgeni Malkin also had two goals -- giving him 28 for the year -- and added two assists for the Penguins, who had already locked up the Eastern Conference's fourth seed entering Sunday and will play Ottawa in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Brent Johnson got the start in place of starter Marc-Andre Fleury and stopped 33-of-38 shots.
The top overall pick in 2009, John Tavares, scored his 23rd goal and added an assist to cap his rookie season in New York. Tavares finished one goal and two points shy of fellow rookie Matt Duchene of the Avalanche. Duchene topped all first-year players with 24 goals and 55 points.
Kyle Okposo, who had a goal and two assists, Jon Sim and Freddy Meyer reeled off consecutive goals in the third period to erase a 5-2 Pittsburgh lead and force overtime.
Dwayne Roloson allowed all six scores on 37 shots for the Islanders, who were thumped, 7-3, at Pittsburgh on Thursday and dropped a 7-1 test in New Jersey two days later. Martin Biron was abused for 11 scores in those two contests.
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