Playing their second game in as many nights and seventh in the last 11 days, the last thing the Blue Jackets could afford to do was give the Pittsburgh Penguins a special teams free-for-all.
After the Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the first period, though, it was quite the opposite. Pittsburgh scored five unanswered goals (three of those on the power play) to pull away Sunday at CONSOL Energy Center, and they took full advantage of some undisciplined play from the Blue Jackets. Columbus gave the Penguins a 53-second two-man advantage and a five-minute major power play, which is far too much power play time for one of the NHL’s most skilled teams.
The end result was a 5-3 loss for the Blue Jackets – their sixth straight – and this one stings because they stubbed their toe too many times. The game got away from them in the second period and penalties were largely to blame.
James Wisniewski’s power play goal in the first period, just the Blue Jackets’ second in 39 man advantage opportunities, appeared to be the ideal start, but it unraveled quickly.
Evgeni Malkin scored his first of two goals less than 90 seconds after the Wisniewski goal to pull the Penguins even. From there, it was a tough go for the Blue Jackets; David Perron, Malkin (his second) and Derrick Pouliot scored second period goals for Pittsburgh to break it open, and they controlled long stretches of the game and made it difficult for the Blue Jackets to get anything going.
Ryan Johansen scored shorthanded early (his 22nd) in the third period and Nick Foligno scored late to pull within 5-3 (his team-leading 24th), but that was as close as Columbus could get.
The Penguins had 15 of the 21 total shot attempts at even strength in the third period (71.4 percent) and had the puck a lot, and the Blue Jackets seemed to run out of gas after a lot of penalty killing on the tail end of a two-game weekend.
“The first period was great, we didn’t give them much,” Johansen said. “We were smart with the puck and got pucks deep, made good decisions. (In the second period), their power play did the work and we weren’t as sharp as we should have been on the PK. You have to stay out of the box against a team like that. It’s too bad we couldn’t keep it 5-on-5.”
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online Sports
