Penguins 5, Blue Jackets 3
Evgeni Malkin collected two goals and an assist to record his third consecutive three-point performance as host Pittsburgh skated to its fourth straight victory.
David Perron and defenseman Derrick Pouliot each scored a power-play goal for the Penguins, who went 3-for-6 with the man advantage to defeat their Metropolitan Division rival for the first time in three meetings this season. Steve Downie also tallied, captain Sidney Crosby notched a pair of assists to extend his point streak to four games and defenseman Kris Letang also set up a pair of goals.
Ryan Johansen scored on a breakaway in the third period and assisted on defenseman James Wisniewski's power-play tally for the Blue Jackets, who have dropped six in a row (0-5-1). Nick Foligno also scored for Columbus, which failed to do any more damage against Marc-Andre Fleury (22 saves) while Curtis McElhinney turned aside 36 shots in defeat.
With his team on a 5-on-3 advantage, Perron alertly banked a shot off Blue Jackets blue-liner Jack Johnson and into the net to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead at 2:34 of the second period. Malkin added his team-leading 26th goal with a one-timer from the slot to double the advantage under two minutes later and Pouliot cleaned up Patric Hornqvist's deflection of Crosby's shot to give the Penguins a comfortable cushion with 2:53 left in the second.
After failing to cash in on all 20 power-play opportunities over its previous six games, Columbus converted on its first chance Sunday as Wisniewski's one-timer from the left circle beat Fleury to open the scoring with 2:27 left in the first period. Malkin answered 82 seconds later, backhanding a shot from the right circle that squeezed past a screened McElhinney.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Penguins RW Daniel Winnik notched an assist in his debut with his new team after being acquired from Toronto on Wednesday. Winnik sent a beautiful feed from below the goal line to set up Downie's goal just 18 seconds into the third period. ... Malkin has collected five goals and six assists on his five-game point streak while Crosby has scored one goal and set up five others during his run. ... Johansen stirred tensions between the teams by delivering a crushing open-ice hit on Crosby in the first period.