Penguins outlast Blue Jackets in shootout
PITTSBURGH -- Kris Letang scored the deciding goal in a shootout to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Letang, the fourth Pittsburgh shooter, lifted the puck past Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Goals from Columbus' Pierre-Luc Dubois in the second period and Pittsburgh's Patric Hornqvist in the third forged a 1-1 tie. The Penguins' Evgeni Malkin and the Blue Jackets' Artemi Panarin exchanged power-play goals later in the third to tie it again 2-2.
Pittsburgh (18-15-3) won in the opening game of a three-date homestand after losing five of its previous seven. It was the first game in a stretch of six out of eight against Metropolitan Division teams.
Columbus (21-13-2) lost for the fourth time in six games.
Penguins goaltender Matt Murray made 30 saves through regulation and overtime. He had lost two of three since returning from a lower-body injury.
Bobrovsky stopped 39 shots going into the shootout as he dropped to 1-3-1 in his past five games.
The Blue Jackets broke through at 7:09 of the second. Dubois, from the right circle, lofted a shot under the crossbar for a 1-0 lead.
In the first meeting of the season in what has developed into a strong rivalry, frustration bubbled over for Penguins star centers Malkin and Sidney Crosby, who each got involved in scuffles in the final 30 seconds of the second.
Malkin and Columbus' Nick Foligno got into a scrap in the Blue Jackets' slot with 28.1 seconds left in the second and got fighting majors. Things bubbled over further at the buzzer, when Crosby took on Seth Jones in the same area, with both picking up double roughing minors.
The second scrap was precipitated by Blue Jackets center Boone Jenner going after Penguins winger Jake Guentzel, with Jenner getting not only a crosschecking major but also a game misconduct. Letang also got a roughing minor for going after Jenner.
That all resulted in four-on-four play for the opening two minutes of the third, followed by a three-minute Pittsburgh power play.
The Penguins used that man-advantage to tie it 1-1 when Hornqvist redirected a Phil Kessel shot under Bobrovsky's glove at 2:25.
Malkin gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead at 15:03 of the third when he batted a Crosby rebound past Bobrovsky, but Panarin knotted it again at 16:14 when he scored through a screen.
Columbus returns to PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.
NOTES: Columbus D Zach Werenski (upper body) missed his second consecutive game. ... Pittsburgh RW Patric Hornqvist returned after missing one game because of a lower-body injury. ... D Jamie Oleksiak made his Penguins debut, on his 25th birthday, after being acquired from Dallas on Tuesday, leaving D Ian Cole a healthy scratch. ... Pittsburgh D Matt Hunwick played his 500th NHL game.