• Who: Penguins (22-14-10) vs. Blue Jackets (21-19-7)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 47
• When: 7:08 p.m.
• Where: PPG Paints Arena
• Goaltenders: Arturs Silovs (8-6-7, .892 SV%) vs. Elvis Merzlikins (7-7-1, .882 SV%)
• TV: SportNet Pittsburgh
• Stream: SNP360 (local) ESPN+ (out-of-market)
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Boxscore: NHL.com
• Media notes: Penguins | Blue Jackets
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Final/SO: Coyle scores winner.
• Round 3: Marchenko goes stick-side, Silovs stones him. Rust goes five-hole, stopped.
• Round 2: Fantilli goes for five-hole, Silovs stops him. Chinakhov scores top shelf.
• Round 1: Johnson goes backhand to score, Crosby misses
• This will be the seventh shootout for Silovs, he’s 1-5 and has stopped 5 of 16 attempts.
• Entertaining overtime ends with the teams still tied, so it’ll be a shootout.
• Kindel does everything but score, Malkin robbed twice in tight.
• End third period: We’re heading to overtime, again versus the Blue Jackets.
• GOAL: Letang with the hard shot-pass to Crosby to the side of the net to tie the game at three with one minute to play.
• Puck flutters on Chinakhov rebound shot following Novak’s shot.
• Rust had a two chances, nothing else doing on the power-play.
• Kindel draws a holding penalty, Fantilli will sit for two.
• 8:26 left, shots are tied at 20 for each club. Blue Jackets are aggressively attacking the puck carrier through the neutral zone.
• Fantilli find himself all alone against Silovs, wrist shot is stopped.
• Kulak blocks a shot with his skates, hobbles to the bench.
• Four missed shots by the Penguins to begin this period, 15 for the game.
• Clifton with another scoring chance, this time shorthanded. What are we watching tonight?
• The third period is underway. Penguins will have 1:22 of penalty-time to kill before they can get back into this game. The team is 16-0-2 against the Blue Jackets at home in their last 18.
• End second period: Blue Jackets controlled the play that period, outshooting the Penguins 13-8. Columbus had 12 scoring chances to the Penguins’ zero.
• 38.6 seconds left in the period, Kulak heads to the penalty box for hooking.
• GOAL: Gudbranson point shot finds the back of the net through a screen as the puck deflected by Heinen for the goal. Blue Jackets, 3-2.
• With 20 seconds left on the PK, St. Ivany can’t clear the zone off the boards resulting in defensive zone draw.
• Lizotte goes to the box for high-sticking Jenner as the puck was leaving the offensive zone. Columbus receives a power-play with 5:45 to play in the second period.
• After the whistle, Olivier skated over to say something to Wotherspoon. He’s not happy about the stick work on Werenski.
• Crosby and Malkin were weaving around the Columbus zone during four-on-four action. Crosby came off, Novak jumped on and got a good chance in the slot but missed the corner.
• Wotherspoon and Werenski sit for slashing. Olivier doesn’t like it, so we’ll see if anything happens.
• GOAL: Marchenko is given a gift by Kulak, who for reasons drifted towards the boards as Letang was battling for the puck. The puck moves by Letang but right to Marchenko who had all kinds of time as Crosby couldn’t cut off the angle. It feels like Marchenko scores at least once per game against the Penguins. Tied, 2-2.
• Blue Jackets with a bit of a push back, getting some good looks on net.
• St. Ivany hesitates with the puck inside his own zone and Marchenko hunts down the puck in the corner. Those are the types of plays St. Ivany can’t allow to happen.
• Scoring change on Clifton’s goal, assist to Novak only. Blue Jackets kill the penalty and almost scored with Provorov out of the box all alone but he blew the slapper wide.
• Provorov sits for two-minutes, interference obstructing Kindel.
• Second period is underway.
• During five-on-five play, Penguins lead 26-12 in shot attempts, 13-6 scoring chances, and 6-3 high-danger chances.
• End first period: Penguins continued to put pressure on the Blue Jackets to end the period. Rust had a wakeup hit on Marchenko at center ice. Shots ended 11-4 in favor of the Penguins.
• GOAL: A wraparound clearing attempt by the Blue Jackets goes right to Crosby, who was all alone down below the goal line, and sends a pass to Rakell who was cutting in front, the one-timer goes over Merzlikins at 17:52. Penguins, 2-1
• Penguins have started to control the play, now leading 9-4 in shots with 5:45 left in the period.
• Malkin with a short pass to Clifton to spring him on mini-breakaway inside the offensive zone and Clifton showed why he’s a defensemen by not getting off a shot.
• GOAL: Connor Clifton wrists a shot by Merzlikins through a screen from just inside the red circle. That’s Clifton’s first of the season, assists to Malkin and Novak. Tied, 1-1.
• Penguins couldn’t get setup in the zone and their first PP expires without a shot.
• Aston-Reese called for high-sticking Letang near the net as the Blue Jackets were maintaining possession in the Penguins’ defensive zone. Penguins will start the power-play after the TV timeout. Shots are tied at three.
• That was the 13th first goal of the game scored by the Blue Jackets in their last 17 games.
• GOAL: A point shot deflected to Aston-Reese, he swept the puck by Silovs scoring his first goal of the season, on a broken play at 2:42. Assists to Werenski and Gaunce.
• Faceoff: Penguins vs. Blue Jackets, 7:08 p.m., Crosby vs. Monahan
• Dan Muse’s lines and pairings for the Penguins:
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
Brett Kulak – Kris Letang
Parker Wotherspoon – Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Shea – Connor Clifton
• Rick Bowness’ projected lines and pairings for the Blue Jackets:
Cole Sillinger – Adam Fantilli – Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner – Sean Monahan – Kent Johnson
Dmitri Voronkov – Charlie Coyle – Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese – Brendan Gaunce – Danton Heinen
Zach Werenski – Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov – Damon Severson
Egor Zamula – Erik Gudbranson