Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Evgeni Malkin scored the go-ahead goal late in the first period as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the New York Rangers, 3-1, in the opener of a home-and-home series at Mellon Arena.

Marian Hossa and Maxime Talbot also tallied, while Sidney Crosby added a pair of assists for the Penguins, who have won three straight and five of their last six. Pittsburgh now has 99 points and is one ahead of idle Montreal for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

"That's just the way it is, every team is battling right to the end, no one is really safe," said Crosby. "You can't afford to have a bad game. Like alot of teams we're preparing, making sure we are on top of our game going into the playoffs."

Pittsburgh is also six points ahead of idle New Jersey for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Penguins are trying for their first division crown since winning the Northeast in 1998.

Marc-Andre Fleury, was stellar between the pipes for Pittsburgh, stopping 26- of-27 shots.

Brandon Dubinsky accounted for the Rangers lone goal. New York has dropped three of its last four contests and with 91 points is tied for third place with Philadelphia in the Atlantic.

Henrik Lundqvist made 17 saves in defeat.

"We need to be better 5-on-5," said Rangers head coach Tom Renney. "We can't be fooled by the fact that we outshot this team and got a power-play goal.We were certainly competitive, we didn't get run out of this rink and I thought the game was right there for us."

The Rangers wasted little time getting on the board, striking for a power-play tally 3:03 into the opening period. With Hal Gill in the penalty box serving a hooking minor, New York won a right circle faceoff and Christian Backman's shot from the right point was stopped by Fleury, but Dubinsky, who was standing on the doorstep, put it home to give the visitors the early edge.

Hossa tied the contest when he fired a slap shot past Lundqvist on the glove side from the left circle midway through the period.

Pittsburgh then capitalized on a five-on-three advantage with 2:04 left in the frame. With the Pens putting on heavy pressure in the Rangers defensive zone, Malkin one-timed a feed from Sergei Gonchar from the mid point and blasted one over the right shoulder of Lundqvist, giving the Penguins the 2-1 advantage heading into the intermission.

Despite some quality chances by both squads in the second, there was no scoring and Pittsburgh maintained the slim lead after two periods of play. Malkin suffered facial lacerations during the frame after he was stepped on by Dubinsky, but returned to the contest for the third.

Each team had numerous scoring opportunities for the majority of the third, but were unable to light the lamp.

However, with 47 seconds remaining Lundqvist mishandled a soft wrister from the right point and following a goal-mouth scramble, Talbot tucked the puck past the New York netminder to make it a 3-1 game.

New York was unable to mount any pressure in the closing seconds and Pittsburgh held on to earn the two points.