Item 1 of 34 Jan 17, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) skates near Columbus Blue Jackets Ivan Provorov (9) during the first period at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
[1\/34]Jan 17, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) skates near Columbus Blue Jackets Ivan Provorov (9) during the first period at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n January 18 – Charlie Coyle scored the winning goal in the shootout and the Columbus Blue Jackets kept new coach Rick Bowness’ record perfect by edging the host Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n With the shootout knotted 1-1 on goals by Columbus’ Kent Johnson and Pittsburgh’s Egor Chinakhov, Coyle deked his way to net the winner in the bottom of the fourth round to move Bowness to 3-0-0 this week since taking the job Monday.<\/p>\n Zach Aston-Reese, Danton Heinen and Kirill Marchenko scored goals as Columbus won its fourth straight overall and improved to 5-1 in shootouts. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins stopped 29 shots.<\/p>\n Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Connor Clifton and Rickard Rakell tallied for the Penguins. Goalie Arturs Silovs made 22 saves.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh’s rally extended its home point streak against one opponent to 19 games (16-0-3), the NHL’s longest active stretch.<\/p>\n The Penguins fell to 1-7 in the shootout, and all four matches between the teams went to overtime.<\/p>\n Aston-Reese hit the net for the first time this season off a broken play. The fourth-liner found a deflection off Zach Werenski’s long shot and scored from the low slot at 2:42.<\/p>\n Clifton evened it 1-all just over seven minutes later on a fortunate bounce. The puck skipped by the skate of Dmitri Voronkov and right to the defenseman, who buried his first goal wearing the black-and-gold of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n Playing in his 1,399th NHL game, Crosby set up the third score with over two minutes left in the period, finding a puck in the corner and whipping a pass to Rakell for the home side’s first lead.<\/p>\n Marchenko bolted through the middle of the ice in the second frame and tallied at 7:32 on an unassisted marker to knot it again.<\/p>\n Blue-liner Erik Gudbranson fired a shot from out deep that Heinen tipped in at 17:38, beating Silovs for a 3-2 lead for the visitors after 40 minutes.<\/p>\n In an intense third, Merzlikins made a spectacular save on Chinakhov with three minutes remaining, but with Silovs pulled for the extra skater, Crosby deflected a pass from Kris Letang with one minute left to force overtime.<\/p>\n –Field Level Media<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n