Yes, the Penguins would have loved to get that second point.

And, yes, it really does sting to lose when you give up a goal when what's left of overtime is being measured in tenths of a second.

But it turns out that, from the Penguins' perspective, losing, 3-2, in overtime to a team that trails them by 21 points in the standings --at home, no less -- is not quite the epic setback some might suspect.

You know, people who think that when a team is competing for a top seed in the Stanley Cup playoffs, donating a point or two to an opponent that will require nothing shy of divine intervention to quality for the postseason could prove to be quite costly.

Who believe that holding a three-point lead over second-place New Jersey in the Atlantic Division before the Devils played St. Louis Saturday night would have been much better than being up by just two, as the Penguins were.

But if the Penguins (42-24-6) truly believed that their game against Carolina Saturday afternoon at Mellon Arena deserved to be characterized as a "must-win," they did a pretty good job of concealing it afterward.

"Had to win?" winger Ruslan Fedotenko said. "Definitely, we wanted to win, but I don't know if you'd put it that way, that we have to win. I mean, we didn't win, so what's going to happen now? The end of the world? No."

Whew. That's a relief.

Then again, before the game, predicting the imminent demise of the planet would not have seemed like much more of a stretch than suggesting Hurricanes defenseman Jamie McBain, whose NHL experience can easily be measured in minutes, would be the one to end it as overtime was melting away.

But it was his shot from the high slot, which glanced off the hand of Penguins center Sidney Crosby, that got past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with nine-tenths of a second remaining -- 1.5 seconds if you go by televised replays -- to give the Hurricanes their third one-goal victory of the season against the Penguins.

And giving McBain, playing in his third game at this level, a first NHL goal that he will remember when his great-grandchildren are playing in the league.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," McBain said. "You never know when it's going to happen. Just for it to be this kind of game, this kind of atmosphere going against one of the top teams in the league. An overtime winner with not much time left. It's a pretty special feeling."

McBain's goal hoisted the Hurricanes out of 14th place in the Eastern Conference and all the way to, well, a three-way tie for 11th, which hardly is reason for Carolina management to put in a rush order for the printing of playoff tickets.

"We'll just stay in the fight until they tell us we can't play any more," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said.

Funny, but someone seemed to deliver that very message to the Penguins before the opening faceoff, because they began the game as if they had other plans for the afternoon.

"We talked about having a good start," defenseman Jordan Leopold said. "We didn't get off to that."

Carolina's Zach Boychuk got the only goal of the first period, and the Penguins did not counter until just 17.5 seconds were left in the second. Still, when Evgeni Malkin -- back after missing two games because of a bruised foot -- scored at 13:05 of the third, it did not seem unreasonable to believe that the Hurricanes might wilt.

Didn't happen, though. Not even close.

Some might argue that proves the Hurricanes do not realize they are almost certain to miss the playoffs. Others contend that it makes that very point rather emphatically.

"There's no pressure on them," Penguins left winger Matt Cooke said. "They're just coming out and playing hard."

That commitment led to a Joni Pitkanen goal with four minutes left in regulation, and eventually to the one McBain scored to earn a second point for his team.

For the Hurricanes, it was a heady triumph. For the Penguins, the latest reminder that the most consistent feature of their game this season might be their inconsistency.

"That is an area that we need to get better at," coach Dan Bylsma said. "We've not been good in it, and we need to get better in it."

Sometime before that whole end-of-the-world thing really does come along.

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.