In the Pittsburgh Penguins first two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets this season – a pair of one-goal losses – the Pens went 0-for-6 on the power play despite taking 11 shots with the man advantage.
In Sunday night’s 5-3 win over Columbus, the Penguins power play went 3-for-6 on 14 shots and accounted for the entire margin of victory.
The teams took a little while to adjust to the odd 5:00 p.m. start, and the first period was scoreless until the 17:33 mark, when James Wisniewski fired a one-time past Marc-Andre Fleury for a power play goal.
The Penguins quickly answered when Evgeni Malkin scored his 25th goal of the season just 1:22 later with a shot that found it’s way through a Chris Kunitz screen and Columbus goaltender Curtis McElhinney to tie that game at one.
David Perron scored the first of three straight goals power play goals for the Penguins when he bounced one in off Columbus defenseman Jack Johnson on a two-man advantage at 2:34 of the second period.
On the same power play, Evgeni Malkin connected for his second goal of the game at 4:20 of the period when Kris Letang walked down the left wing wall and found Malkin wide open in the slot for a one-timer. Sidney Crosby earned the secondary assist.
Derrick Pouliot scored from a sharp angle on the right wing to record his second career goal and give the Penguins a three-goal lead at 17:07 of the second period. Patric Hornqvist and Crosby assisted on the play.
Steve Downie scored his 11th of the season just 18 seconds in to the third period, and the rout was on. Daniel Winnik made the pass to set up the play and earned his first point in a Penguins sweater in his very first game.
Columbus got one back at 5:37 of the third when Ryan Johansen beat Fleury on a shorthanded breakaway, and Nick Foligno drew the Blue Jackets to within a pair with under a minute remaining, but it was too little, too late.
With Malkin’s three-point night and Crosby’s pair of assists, the Penguins superstars are now tied for the team lead with 64 points and are just one point back of the NHL scoring leaders, the New York Islanders’ John Tavares and the Philadelphia Flyers’ Jakub Voracek.
With the victory, the Penguins remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division, and now trail the first-place Islanders by three points with two games in hand.
Photo credit: NHL
