The Blue Jackets' record is now 22-19-7 with 51 points.
Zach Aston-Reese(1), Kirill Marchenko(18), and Danton Heinen(2) provided the offense while Charlie Coyle beat Penguins goalie Artūrs Šilovs on the Jackets' fourth shootout attempt to seal the victory for Columbus.
Coming into this game, the CBJ were 6-19-0-5 all-time in Pittsburgh, with their sixth win coming on October 25th. That game ended just as last night's game did, in a shootout. The Blue Jackets and Penguins have played four games this season, and all four went to OT, with the CBJ winning two games in shootouts and the Pens winning two games in the overtime period.
The first period of this game did not go well for the Blue Jackets, as they were completely dominated in pretty much all areas of the game. Head Coach Bowness said of the first period struggles, "The most important thing is we responded to a bad period. I love that."
The rest of the time though, the Blue Jackets played a very good road game, and goalie Elvis Merzlikins held strong, making four saves on three Pittsburgh power plays.
But in typical Pittsburgh fashion, Sidney Crosby scored the tying goal with just 61 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.
The Blue Jackets were able to defeat the Pens in a shootout to win their 4th straight.
Defenseman Dante Fabbro was lost after playing just 4:34 due to a lower leg injury. Bowness gave no update on Fabbro other than that he'll be evaluated when they get back to Columbus.
Bowness, after the game, spoke about losing Fabbro, "They sucked it up early. And that's a lot of minutes for Z. But you know what? Look how great Elvis played. You go down to 5D. They're going to be tired...You need big saves. And Elvis was outstanding today. He really was."
Final Stats
CBJ APPPlayer Stats
- Zach Aston-Reese scored his 1st goal of the season. He only played 7:32.
- Kirill Marchenko scored his 18th goal and had 4 shots on goal.
- Danton Heinen scored his 2nd goal and had 3 shots.
- Zach Werenski recorded his 34th assist of the season and played 29:18. He now has points in 13 of his last 14 games.
- Brendan Gaunce collected his 4th assist and was a plus-2.
- Erik Gudbranson got his 1st assist of the season.
- Egor Zamula tallied his 2nd assist of the year.
- Dmitri Voronkov only played 8:57.
Team Stats
- The Jackets power play went 0/2.
- The Columbus PK stopped all three Pittsburgh power plays.
- Columbus won 41.9% of the faceoffs - 26/62
- The Blue Jackets had 24 hits and 24 blocked shots.
Up Next: Columbus is back at home on Tuesday to play the Ottawa Senators.
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