What We Learned: PIT 5, CBJ 2

They played with more energy, but the Pittsburgh Penguins played with more poise than the Blue Jackets on Sunday at Nationwide Arena.
Columbus outshot its ninth straight opponent, by a sizeable margin (37-23), but lost again, 5-2, because of its inability to create enough goals off those opportunities. The Jackets also fell behind 2-0 seven minutes into the game and never fully recovered.
"It's a tough way to start, to be down 2-0 right away on, really, a couple of … just wrist shots," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said, referring to goals scored by forward Riley Sheahan at 1:41 and defenseman Brian Dumoulin at 6:57, both deflected into the net. "Give them credit. They did a good job, as far as they deflected a lot of pucks tonight."
Artemi Panarin cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:29 of the first, but Sheahan scored a second time to re-establish the two-goal lead, 3-1, less than two minutes later. Columbus (29-25-5) played catch-up the rest of the game, eventually dropping its third straight game in regulation.
"They create offense very smart," said Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who allowed five goals on 23 shots. "It's very challenging to play against them. [They're] very smart offensively. They're not [going to] just shoot the puck on net and just hope that it [will] go in."
Wennberg scored the other goal for the Blue Jackets, while rookie forward Zach Aston-Reese and forward Jake Guentzel scored the final two goals for the Penguins (35-22-4), who won their fifth straight game.
"I thought we did some good things," Tortorella said. "I'm not going to get into a long talk on it, but we had some opportunities. I thought we played hard. I certainly felt we had more energy, and I think our physical play picked up, also. I can look for all the good things and all that, but we lose, 5-2."
Columbus also lost two more players to injuries, as neither captain Nick Foligno (lower-body injury) nor rookie defenseman Dean Kukan (upper body) finished the game.
Here's what we learned:

I: WHAT IT MEANS
The loss was the Blue Jackets' third straight in regulation and dropped them behind the Carolina Hurricanes, who gained a point Sunday with an overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Columbus is one point behind the Hurricanes and New York Islanders, who currently own the second wild card in the Eastern Conference over Carolina via a tiebreaker.
II: INJURY BUG BITES AGAIN
After losing defenseman Markus Nutivaara to an upper-body injury late in the game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday, the Blue Jackets lost Kukan and Foligno against the Penguins.
Kukan was injured on a hit by Aston-Reese along the end boards at 10:15 of the first period. He soon left the ice and didn't return.
Foligno sustained his injury after hitting Conor Sheary late in the second period. He left before the end of the second period, returned for one shift in the third and then exited the game for good with a lower-body injury.
"I didn't see [Kukan] get hit, but that's a tough break there, and [Foligno], it looked like the skate went right through his sock," forward Cam Atkinson said. "It didn't cut him, but I'm not sure what the result is with that. Hopefully not too bad, but that's the way it is right now."
Foligno and Kukan were the second and third Blue Jackets players injured while playing Pittsburgh this season. Wennberg sustained a back injury on Dec. 27 at PPG Paints Arena that kept him out eight games.
III: CHASING THE GAME
Just as they did against the Flyers on Friday, the Blue Jackets struggled to generate much offense in the first period.
Pittsburgh scored three goals, but also limited Columbus to one goal on 10 shots. The Penguins did a good job crowding the middle third of the ice and didn't allow the Blue Jackets much room to breathe.
That cut down shots and attempts for Columbus, which had outshot its previous eight opponents 348-226, and twice this month put 26 shots on net against the Islanders.
At the other end of the ice, the Penguins scored efficiently. They took their 2-0 lead on a pair of deflected pucks and withstood Panarin's goal that cut their lead in half. They responded less than two minutes later on Sheahan's second goal.
"That's a hard one," Tortorella said. "The third one was a hard one for us. I could sense the bench [deflate]. We come back, it's 2-1, we cut it in half, and we just … that's a tough one."
Columbus outshot Pittsburgh 10-6 in the first, but five shots happened on the only power-play of the period for either team.
"I'm certainly not putting all this on [Bobrovsky]," Tortorella said. "We have chances to score. [Wennberg] has a chance to score, [Matt Calvert] has a chance to score. So, we can talk about the goalie, but you also have to talk about the other people and the job they have to do. It's a group thing, as far as this evening and the inconsistencies as we've gone through here."
IV: CAN'T FIND THE EXIT
The Penguins' forecheck pinned Columbus into its own end several times in the first half of the game, which made attempts to exit the defensive zone adventurous for Columbus.
It indirectly led to Pittsburgh's fourth goal, scored by Aston-Reese at 9:29 of the second period. The Blue Jackets struggled to get out of their own end, turned the puck over in the neutral zone and watched Aston-Reese make it 4-1 a few seconds later off the rebound of a point shot.
Columbus piled up huge shots totals in three consecutive games last week, but also had no trouble clearing their own zone in those games. They had more room to work, got the puck up the ice with little trouble and set up shop in the offensive zone.
The Flyers and Penguins each finished with significantly fewer shots than Columbus, but each won by slowing the Blue Jackets down enough to let their own scorers capitalize on some scoring chances.
V: PANARIN STRIKES AGAIN
Panarin's goal was his 12th point and ninth goal in seven career games against the Penguins, including four goals and one assist in three games this season with the Blue Jackets.
The goal was scored off a 2-on-1 with Atkinson, who faked a shot and slid a perfect feed to Panarin for a tap-in off his rush to the net. It was Panarin's 16th goal and 47th point this season, extending his team-high in points and bringing him within one goal of Josh Anderson for the lead in goals.
Panarin led all skaters with five shots on goal.

VI: UPDATE FROM THE FARM
In other injury-related news, defenseman Ryan Murray and rookie forward Sonny Milano each scored goals Sunday in the Cleveland Monsters' 5-3 loss in Chicago.
Murray, who's on a conditioning assignment, scored with less than a minute to play in the first period to give the Monsters a 2-1 lead. Milano scored in the second period to give Cleveland a 3-2 lead. Murray missed 34 games with an upper-body injury, while Milano missed 14 games while recovering from a torn oblique muscle.
Veteran forward Nathan Gerbe, who was signed Jan. 24, continued a hot start for the Monsters. Gerbe had a goal and assist against the Chicago Wolves to extend his point streak to five games. He has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 11 games with Cleveland, including eight points (one goal, seven assists) during the streak.
VII: THIS AND THAT …
Pittsburgh won the season series with the victory, taking the first three of four games. The Jackets will host the finale April 5 in the second-to-last game of the season … Columbus didn't commit a penalty for the third time this season, but lost for the first time while doing so. The previous two games were both 2-1 road victories against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 11 in a shootout and against the Dallas Stars on Jan. 2. … Boone Jenner assisted on Wennberg's goal for his fourth assist and point in the past five games. … Kukan's early departure paved the way for Harrington to log a season-high 20:19 in ice time. … The Blue Jackets have finished with 35-or-more shots in eight straight games, outshooting their opponents in that stretch 356-221, an average of 44.5 to 27.6 per game. Columbus is first in the NHL in shots per game (34.9).
VIII: NEXT UP
Columbus will hit the road again for the next two games this week, starting with another key Metro matchup Tuesday at Prudential Center against the Devils (7 p.m., Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports Go, CD102.5 FM).
New Jersey, which won in overtime Sunday against the Hurricanes, holds the first wild card in the Eastern Conference. The Devils are tied in points (70) with the Philadelphia Flyers, who are third in the Metro and defeated the New York Rangers, 7-4, Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
The Blue Jackets will conclude their road trip Thursday in Philadelphia before returning home to face the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.