Blue Jackets 2, Penguins 1 (OT)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Right winger Cam Atkinson scored at 2:42 of overtime, sending the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday in Nationwide Arena.
Atkinson scored after a brilliant play by Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky, who carried the puck in and around the Penguins zone and caused the Pittsburgh defense to collapse.
He then passed the puck to Atkinson in the left circle for the game-winner.
Center Ryan Johansen also scored and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 25 saves for the Blue Jackets, who won two straight and six of their last eight games.
The Penguins goal was scored by center Evgeni Malkin, while goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had 40 saves in the losing effort.
Most of the action was away from the puck. From the last stages of the first period, the game felt like a powderkeg.
The Blue Jackets and Penguins, who had a very physical first-round series in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, traded blows and yaps from the start of the game, and scrums formed after most whistles.
It finally erupted late in the second period.
Dubinsky, who has a history of physical play against Penguins center Sidney Crosby, went a step too far at 18:40 of the second.
Dubinsky took a penalty when he delivered a cross-check to the back of Crosby's neck, sending him to the ice.
After just returning from a six-game injury because of an elbow injury, Dubinsky may be facing supplemental discipline by the NHL.
Before the puck dropped for the ensuing faceoff, Blue Jackets left winger Scott Hartnell and Pittsburgh's Patric Hornqvist started a scrum when the traded jousts. They both went off for roughing.
Only 38 seconds later, after the next stop, Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson and Penguins center Evgeni Malkin clashed and dropped the mitts to fight.
Crosby missed the rest of the second period -- he had time for maybe one more shift -- but took the ice to start the third.
The Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 9:15 of the third period on the power play. Malkin, who played in a fit of rage most of the night, scored off a rebound through a pile of bodies in front of Bobrovsky.
The Blue Jackets returned the favor a few minutes later when they were on the power play.
Johansen gathered the puck and fired from a tight angle, the puck caroming off Fleury's left skate and into the net at 11:57 of the third.
NOTES: Blue Jackets D Dalton Prout was a healthy scratch, one game after he benched by coach John Tortorella for the third period and a half against New Jersey for taking too many penalties. D Justin Falk, recalled from AHL Lake Erie on Tuesday, took his spot in the lineup. ... Penguins coach Mike Johnston said D Olli Maatta is still at least a week from playing because of an upper-body injury caused when he was slammed into an open gate on the bench during play. ... The Blue Jackets recalled LW Markus Hannikainen from minor league Lake Erie. He was a healthy scratch against Pittsburgh but could make his NHL debut on Saturday in St. Louis.