Lambert records first multi-point game, Jets lose

Sidney Crosby scored the shootout winner to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 5-4 win over the Winnipeg Jets. Brad Lambert had a goal and an assist, Morgan Barron, Neal Pionk and Cole Koepke scored for Winnipeg whose record fell to 28-29-12. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves including five brilliant saves in overtime to get the Jets to the shootout. Winnipeg will finish off their road trip Sunday morning in New York against the Rangers.

OVERCOMING A TOUGH START

Pittsburgh got their home building going in the first period as Egor Chinakov and Rickard Rakell scored 56 second apart to give the Pens a 2-0 lead 2:02 into the hockey game. To the Jets credit, they started to climb back into the game immediately at 3:50, on an odd-man rush, Brad Lambert fired a low shot that Arturs Silovs stopped but Morgan Barron pounced on the rebound and got a friendly bounce to make it 2-1.

In the second period, Winnipeg elevated their game and while shorthanded evened the score. On another odd-man rush, Adam Lowry sent a perfect pass through Erik Karlsson and onto the stick of a flying Cole Koepke who slid the puck under Silovs for the shorthanded goal at 6:10.

WELCOME BACK PIONK

After a long absence having not played since January 13, Neal Pionk got back into the Jets lineup. Pionk’s physicality, puck moving and defending have been missed as the Jets look to push their way into a playoff spot.  Pionk started alongside Haydn Fleury on the third defence pairing and played 22:30 and on top of that in the third period, he helped pull the Jets even again down 3-2 with his third of the season.

"Yeah, it's nice to make contribution, but still the same feeling we lost," said Pionk.

"And look forward to tomorrow. So, yeah, it's good to be back out there, but hopefully different results tomorrow."

Lambert has started to look more comfortable with the Jets since being recalled earlier this month, he had the assist on Barron’s goal that got them on the board in the first. The Jets thought they had the lead after Mark Scheifele scored to make it 4-3 Winnipeg; the goal was called back. But Lambert made sure they got the lead after taking the puck before the Pens blueline, the Finnish forward ripped a shot past a screened Silovs for his first multi-point game of his NHL career.

Lambert played with Morgan Barron and Isak Rosén for just under nine minutes and they showed a lot of speed and impressed head coach Scott Arniel.

"Most of their shifts were in the offensive zone or were coming off the rush. It was good to see them all getting up to speed, using their speed," said Arniel.

"I thought Barron did a really good job working with those two guys. All three, we'll keep them together for tomorrow."