Pittsburgh Review

The Pittsburgh Penguins experienced a challenging game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, resulting in a shootout loss at PPG Paints Arena. This marks the third consecutive game where the Penguins have secured only one of two possible points. With this victory, the Blue Jackets moved ahead of Pittsburgh to claim the second Wild Card playoff position.

Rickard Rakell expressed his disappointment: “It stinks to fight back in this game and then let it go and lose another shootout or overtime. It's been a lot of tight games. We got to find a way to get the two points.” Marcus Pettersson echoed these sentiments, acknowledging critical mistakes that cost them dearly: “There’s some points where we pulled points back... But I think we’re fighting our [butts] off.”

Despite being tied 1-1 after two periods, the Penguins believed their strongest performance came in the final frame when they built a 3-1 lead but failed to maintain control. Head Coach Mike Sullivan commented on their efforts: “It’s discouraging because the irony of it is we give up two goals in the third period, and the third period was our best period that we played all night.”

Kris Letang noted their struggles despite improved play: “The third period we played well, but they still found a way to hurt us with execution.” Rakell contributed significantly by scoring twice, yet an error during a breakout led to Dmitri Voronkov narrowing Columbus' deficit.

A slashing penalty against Blake Lizotte late in regulation gave Columbus an opportunity they capitalized on with Adam Fantilli's tying goal. Sullivan pointed out lapses in execution during penalty kills as key issues: "A lot of it just boils down to details."

In overtime, Penguins had several scoring chances but were thwarted by Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins before Kent Johnson clinched victory for Blue Jackets in shootout. Bryan Rust acknowledged room for improvement: "We’ve got to find a way to get extra points in those situations."

Evgeni Malkin missed this game due to an undisclosed injury after participating fully in morning skate; Cody Glass filled his spot at center on second line.

Rickard Rakell reached his 20th goal milestone for sixth time while Michael Bunting continues powering successful power plays—now leading NHL since mid-November—and Erik Karlsson extends point streak showing impressive consistency across recent matches.

Sidney Crosby set new record surpassing Patrice Bergeron with most faceoff wins since tracking began during 1997-98 season—achieving another career highlight amidst team challenges faced tonight.