PITTSBURGH — The Penguins almost did it to the Blue Jackets again Oct. 25 at PPG Paints Arena, but a 5-4 shootout victory saved the day for Columbus.
Pittsburgh extended a home point streak over the Blue Jackets to 18 straight games with a point in the loss, overcoming a 4-2 deficit in the final 5:06 of regulation to force overtime, but Kirill Marchenko’s goal and Evgeni Malkin’s miss in the third round of the shootout saved the Blue Jackets from taking another gut punch from the Penguins (6-2-1).
The Blue Jackets (4-4-0) got a needed win to split their first of 15 back-to-backs and moved to 3-1-0 in four road games after struggling away from Nationwide Arena last season.
“It was a gutsy win,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “We just stuck with it, and I’m proud of us for that. We were focused on one thing, getting the two points, so overtime was good and to get it done in the shootout feels good.”
They certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves, despite Yegor Chinakhov and Dmitri Voronkov providing a 4-2 lead on goals 2:59 apart to start the third. Pittsburgh staged a feverish push around the midway point of the period, aided by back-to-back power plays.
The Penguins tied it, 4-4, on goals two minutes apart from Kris Letang and Bryan Rust in the final 5:06 of regulation.
In overtime, the Blue Jackets outshot the Penguins 3-1 during an exciting five minutes of 3-on-3 before the game went to the shootout. Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli each scored goals for the Blue Jackets in the first two rounds, which Rust and Sidney Crosby countered for Pittsburgh.
That set up Marchenko against Malkin in the third frame.
Marchenko led it off with a goal through the pads to beat Arturs Silovs before Malkin missed the net to give the Blue Jackets the win. Elvis Merzlikins made 24 saves for the goaltending win, while Silovs made 36 stops in a rare matchup of Latvian goalies.
The Blue Jackets stumbled out of the gate, having to overcome early deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Charlie Coyle in the first and Voronkov, whose first of two goals tied it 2-2 late in the second.
Chinakhov and Voronkov then put the Jackets in position to notch their first regulation win in Pittsburgh since Dec. 21, 2015, almost a full decade earlier, but they couldn’t hold off the Penguins’ late pressure ignited by power plays just 44 seconds apart.
The game was similar to the Blue Jackets’ 4-3 shootout win Jan. 7 of last season, which nixed Pittsburgh’s marathon winning streak against Columbus at PPG Paints Arena that lasted nearly the same length as their active point streak.
“I think it was just some perseverance by the group,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “Our commitment was fantastic (and) obviously our composure was good. It could’ve gone sideways again, but they held their composure and we were able to get the job done.”
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social