COLUMBUS — Sidney Crosby scored the 79th game-winner of his career as the Pittsburgh Penguins continued their dominance of the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 6-3 victory Saturday night.
The Penguins have pretty much dominated the series as of late, winning six-straight over Columbus dating back to last season. In the past 20 games, Pittsburgh is 16-3-1 dating back to Feb. 3, 2017.
Danton Heinen scored twice, Josh Archibald and Jan Rutta each had a goal and an assist, and Brock McGinn also scored a goal. Crosby and Kasperi Kapanen added two assists apiece.
Tristan Jarry stopped 29 shots for Pittsburgh, including shutting out Columbus in the final period.
Pittsburgh has now won four of its first five games and lead the Metropolitan Division with nine points.
Boone Jenner scored a goal, Jack Roslovic had a short-handed, and Kent Johnson got his first NHL goal for Columbus. Elvis Merzlikins stopped 33 shots on the night.
Columbus went ahead 1-0 at 7:13 of the first when Kris Letang’s clearing pass went off Johnny Gaudreau’s skate and bounced to Jenner who buried it past Jarry from right in front of the net.
Up until that point, Pittsburgh had not managed to record a shot on goal.
Roslovic would make it 2-0 when he jumped on a Penguins turnover and scored the short-handed goal with 1:16 left in the first.
Archibald would cut the Blue Jackets' lead in half at 3:43 of the second on a shot from the left win that zipped pass Merzlikins.
Columbus would respond just 14 seconds later with Johnson’s first NHL goal to make it 3-1.
From that point on, Pittsburgh would take control of the game.
Rutta pulled the Penguins to within one goal at midway point the second with a laser from the blue line.
Then Heinen would tie it up with 5:41 left as he buried Crosby’s rebound into the net.
Crosby’s one-timer at 5:38 of the third from the lower right circle gave Pittsburgh its first lead of the game and proved to be the game-winner.
Heinen and McGinn added goals 44 seconds apart to complete the scoring with just over 5 minutes remaining in the contest.
The Blue Jackets continued to struggle with their power play, as they are now 0 for 12 this season, and still remain the only NHL team without a man-advantage goal.
Blue Jackets will head to New York to face the Rangers on Sunday.
Pittsburgh 0 3 3 — 6
Columbus 2 1 0 — 3
First Period
CBJ — Boone Jenner (1) — Assists: Johnny Gaudreau (3), 7:13
CBJ — Jack Roslovic (1) (Shorthanded) — Unassisted, 18:44 Second Period
PIT — Josh Archibald (1) — Assists: Ryan Poehling (1)1, 3:43
CBJ — Kent Johnson (1)Assists: Jack Roslovic (2), 3:57
PIT — Jan Rutta (2)Assists: Kasperi Kapanen (3), 10:04
PIT — Danton Heinen (2)Assists: Sidney Crosby (6), Marcus Pettersson (4), 14:19 Third Period
PIT — Sidney Crosby (3)Assists: Brian Dumoulin (2), 5:38
PIT — Danton Heinen (3)Assists: Pierre-Olivier Joseph (3), Sidney Crosby (7), 14:07
PIT — Brock McGinn (1)Assists: Kasperi Kapanen (4), Jan Rutta (1), 14:51
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