{"id":333395,"date":"2025-10-26T08:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/333395\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T08:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:08:15","slug":"penguins-blue-jackets-recap-pens-rally-but-lose-in-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/333395\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins\/Blue Jackets Recap: Pens rally but lose in shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Penguins give Ben Kindel the night off, which gets Philip Tomasino back into the lineup. Caleb Jones\u2019s injury pulls Matt Dumba back into action, Harrison Brunicke remains watching. The even goalie rotation doesn\u2019t break now, it\u2019s Arturs Silovs\u2019s night.<\/p>\n

Hot start for the Penguins, Ryan Shea shoots high on Elvis Merlikins 59 seconds into the night and it goes in.<\/p>\n

Entertaining first, both teams trade chances. Boone Jenner and Dumba trade punches in a spirited fight.<\/p>\n

Columbus ties it up after a good bit of chances that they earned. You could feel that one coming. Shea tries to ole the stick of Charlie Coyle, not even close. Coyle is there to easily tap in the rebound. Pittsburgh challenges for unknown reasons for goalie interference. Coyle is in the crease but makes less than minimal contact with Silovs. It doesn\u2019t take the refs very long to confirm it\u2019s a good goal, Pens get a penalty for delay of game as a result of the failed challenge.<\/p>\n

The Pens get a quick answer, it\u2019s the mutant line. Evgeni Malkin pulls up and sets Anthony Mantha up for an easy zone entry. Mantha does manipulate the shot angle a little by dragging the puck back to help avoid the defender\u2019s stick-check, but not the best of goals for Merzlikins to watch fly by. 2-1.<\/p>\n

Shots are 16-7 CBJ in the first. The Pens scored that early goal and didn\u2019t have a bad period, but after that point it looked like Columbus was the more hungry team for the rest of the period, until Mantha popped up at the end. All things considered, Pittsburgh is fortunate to be up by a goal at this point.<\/p>\n

The Pens get their first power play, they don\u2019t score but man it was pretty. Merzlikins makes a great stop on Rickard Rakell. The refs take a video review, Sidney Crosby may not have gotten the puck 100% over the line on a follow-up chance but it rolled and was definitely at least 75% over. That\u2019s not enough to count, no goal.<\/p>\n

Not scoring there has ramifications and leads to the Blue Jackets tying it up. Unfortunately for him, Parker Wotherspoon gets handcuffed with the puck in his skates a little bit to turn it over. Kent Johnson is there to take it away and make a great setup for Dmitri Voronkov to absolutely hammer home from in front. No chance for Silovs here. 2-2 game.<\/p>\n

Whereas, I felt the Pens were lucky in the first period to be ahead, that evened out in the second period. Now it was Columbus\u2019s turn to enjoy a 1-0 period where they got fortunate for that the game to unfolded the way it did. 2-2 game overall, shots are 25-15 in favor of CBJ.<\/p>\n

The Jackets take their first lead of the game early in the third. A nice shift of possession for them and some in-zone passes leads to Yegor Chinakhov ending up using some Penguin players as a screen to snap a shot through. 3-2 CBJ.<\/p>\n

Columbus keeps going, Connor Clifton is away from the net and Sean Monahan passes through Dumba for Voronkov to direct into the net. 4-2 game.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh uses their timeout to break the momentum and regroup.<\/p>\n

Jenner goes to the box for a second Penguin power play on the night, it doesn\u2019t work. Jenner gets a breakaway out of the box but can\u2019t score. The Pens go back to work, Hallander almost scores from in tight and then gets taken down for another Pittsburgh power play. It takes a while but with eight seconds left on it and 5:06 in the game Kris Letang scores. 4-3.<\/p>\n

The Pens empty the tank with a Crosby-Malkin-Rust-Letang-Karlsson five-man group. Silovs heads to the bench and Malkin finds Rust with a cross-ice pass. The shot hits the goalie and goes in, tough angle there, Rust made it work for his first goal of the season. 4-4 game with 3:06 to play.<\/p>\n

Crosby-Rust-Karlsson start things out for the Pens, Monahan wins the faceoff and Columbus gets the all-important puck possession until Crosby can break up a play and take it bakc,<\/p>\n

The game gets crazy, or even crazier – Silovs makes a great stop on Monahan from in front, seconds later Letang shoots the puck over Merlikins\u2019 glove and Ivan Provorov has to save the game by preventing the puck from rolling over the goal line.<\/p>\n

More furious action at both sides, somehow neither one can find the winner.<\/p>\n

Kent Johnson is first, he quickly goes five-hole and scores.<\/p>\n

Rust is the first shooter for the Pens, he matches with a goal on a backhand deke.<\/p>\n

Adam Fantilli is next, comes is deliberately and then speeds up with a series of dekes, ending with a forehand shot by Silovs.<\/p>\n

Crosby is next, and the next to score. He dekes back to this forehand and finds the back of the net.<\/p>\n

Kirill Marchenko takes his turn and makes it 3\/3 after another quick five-hole shot.<\/p>\n

Malkin has to score to keep the game alive, he skys a shot high. Columbus wins.<\/p>\n