Penguins Come from Behind to Secure Win over Columbus

WHAT HAPPENED
The Penguins recorded back-to-back wins with a 3-2 comeback victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday at Nationwide Arena after shutting out the New York Rangers by a score of 1-0 on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.
Chad Ruhwedel, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby scored for Pittsburgh, while Casey DeSmith made 32 saves.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT
Coming off an intense and emotional 60 minutes of play yesterday, the Penguins were faced with another tough divisional opponent in the Blue Jackets. And while their opponent struck first and built a 2-1 lead going into the final frame, the Penguins battled back to secure the win - led by the Two-Headed Monster of Crosby and Malkin.
Mike Sullivan loved the resilience the group showed tonight, and he felt that the captain's game-winning goal reflected that. Crosby was in the right place at the right time to collect a rebound in front of Elvis Merzlikins to finish off a net-front battle with 2:14 remaining. The Blue Jackets fruitlessly used their coach's challenge for goalie interference, as the call on the ice stood, which meant Crosby moved into possession of 25th place on the NHL's all-time point list.

"It's such a huge goal at such a big time," Sullivan said. "It was a hard-fought game and I think he personified it, and that goal was an example of it. In my mind, he's the best player in the game in and around the net. He goes to that area all the time. He's got one of the best sticks in the league."
When Crosby makes big plays at key times, Malkin typically is right there next to him doing the same - and tonight, he sparked the Penguins' comeback. After drawing a penalty with 9:23 left in the final frame, Malkin scored his third power-play goal in as many games after capping off a great passing sequence.
"You can see the he more he wants the puck and the more he has the puck, the more dangerous he is," Rust said. "You can see it when he gets that little kind of hop-step going that he's feeling it. He's been great lately, and I think he's just only going to get better."

Pittsburgh's coaching staff believes their team has one of the top power plays in the league when the guys are at their best and they're executing, which is exactly what they did tonight. Sullivan acknowledged that the little things the group is doing, such as retrieving pucks and entering the zone better to establish zone time, is allowing them to get the job done.
"We felt like our power play had a lot of really good looks (on the first two opportunities). If we were gonna get another one, we felt like we were going to score. I actually said that to them after the second period," Sullivan said. "Those guys did a terrific job, and they ended up getting it done for us."
Now, the Penguins may not have been in the position to make that comeback if it weren't for defenseman Mark Friedman. After playing just three calendar games in the New Year (one here and two with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) Friedman has slotted in as Chad Ruhwedel's partner on the third pairing for the past two contests with Mike Matheson sidelined due to injury.
Those guys were making plays on both ends of the ice, with Ruhwedel scoring a big goal, and Friedman saving one. As the puck snuck past DeSmith and was about to cross the goal line early in the third period, Friedman swept it out of danger and kept the Blue Jackets from taking a 3-1 lead.
"I just heard the crowd cheering. I didn't know if Case really had full possession of the puck, so I just looked behind him and the puck was slowly trickling behind the goal line," Friedman said. "Thankfully I was there to make the save."

When Friedman wasn't the one making saves, it was DeSmith. The last time he was in this building, DeSmith wasn't too happy with his performance after getting pulled, so these two points had an even bigger meaning to the goaltender tonight.
"He was phenomenal," Rust said. "He was confident back there, he was making big saves for us. And I think when you have that kind of rock back there - and we have that in both of our goalies - it's nice. It breeds confidence throughout the lineup."