His face said something entirely different, and the three red scratch marks across the side of his cheek only emphasized the way he was really feeling.

"I hate losing," the Flyers' captain said. "It's as simple as that.

"It's still only one point. It's good to see that we're playing well, we're doing a lot of good things, but good teams find ways to win and hopefully we build off this and bring it into Colorado [for tomorrow night's game].

"But we're still looking for two points, we're still looking for the first win.''

It's an understandable emotion, coming from a guy who plays as hard as Richards. It's even more understandable given the scraps and scrapes and tussles he was in all night, the punch along the wall from Evgeni Malkin that wasn't called, and the unsportsmanlike penalty that was called when Richards threw an extra punch at the bottom of a pile, the one that drew loud boos the rest of the period.

It's also understandable that the coach and Richards' teammates would see the Flyers' 3-2 overtime loss to the Penguins last night in Mellon Arena as a step forward after two losses in the first two games of the season.

Pascal Dupuis broke the 2-2 tie with 10.8 seconds remaining in overtime with a quick slap shot that beat Antero Niittymaki and spoiled the goalie's first start since last season, a game in which he played sharp.

Brooks Orpik sent a long pass into Dupuis' skates from the other side of the rink late in an up-and-down overtime in which the Flyers had plenty of chances to win but could not beat Marc-Andre Fleury.

Call it painful progress.

After two games of partial effort, the Flyers fought all night against their hated rivals across the state, the team that ended their season in the Eastern Conference Finals last May.

The Flyers rallied from two goals down to force the overtime as they began a three-game road trip with a better performance than they displayed at the Wachovia Center in Monday's loss to Montreal.

Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne scored 21 seconds apart in the final minute of the second period to overcome a two-goal Pittsburgh lead.

The score stayed deadlocked through a tough, penalty-filled third period.

"It was a very positive step for this group here tonight,'' said coach John Stevens. "We played back-to-back and our third game in four nights, and Pittsburgh really had a push on to get a win here and I thought our guys responded.

"I was really, really happy with the competitive level of our hockey team tonight. Guys were tired but they dug in and that was the difference, that's what you want."

Niittymaki, his first start since having hip surgery just days before training camp opened, looked tremendous, stopping 25 shots, many of them tough chances.

"I felt pretty confident coming into this game,'' Niittymaki said. "So close, it's too bad, but at least we got a point.''

Niittymaki stopped Miroslav Satan in the slot and a shorthanded breakaway by Max Talbot, then continued to hold off Pittsburgh during some serious chances. He made some great saves and got some help from the post, but 14:12 into the second period Orpik floated a shot in from the left side on the power play as Tyler Kennedy was screening in front. The puck went into the goal over Niittymaki's glove side and Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead on the power play.

Michael Zigomanis made it a two-goal lead 42 seconds later when he was fed a pass from behind the net by Matt Cooke.

Carter broke the ice for the Flyers in the final minute of the period when he got a loose puck out front and snapped it at the net. The puck might have been tipped past Fleury by Penguins defenseman Hal Gill.

"It was a bit of a lucky one,'' Carter said. "[Scottie Upshall] made a good play of keeping it in. I was actually trying to throw the puck over to [Arron Asham] for a tap-in but it hit their defenseman's stick, and we'll take those."

Then, 21 seconds later, Gagne tipped a Kimmo Timonen point shot into the net and the teams were deadlocked again.

"You look at the way we bounced back, 2 minutes left in the second period, down two, we could have said, 'Bleep, this team is hot right now,' and we never let up,'' Upshall said.

"[Asham] got in on [Carter's] first goal and banged and crashed in front of the net, we got a good shot from the point. Gagne battles to the front of the net and it's a good tip, and boom, we're right back in it.

"Getting this point is big for us. We came on the road hoping to get four or five out of six points." *