Blue Jackets Earn First Rule Win Over Penguins Since 2019 – Hockey Writers – Columbus Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets came home from a long road trip hoping to finally right the ship and break their losing streak. After a back-and-forth start, the Blue Jackets pulled away.

Zach Werenski and Dmitri Voronkov each had a goal and an assist. Sean Monahan had two assists including his 300th NHL assist to help lift the Blue Jackets to a convincing 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In the process, the Blue Jackets beat the Penguins in regulation for the first time since 2019. They also snapped their six game losing streak.

Recap of the game

The Blue Jackets needed to get off to a quick start. Thanks to former Penguin Zach Aston-Reese, they were able to do just that. He scored just 2:20 into the game to get them going. Werenski added a power play goal to make it 2-0.

The Penguins are then able to get the limit of inheritance. They climbed back into the game just three minutes later thanks to Anthony Beauvillier. The Blue Jackets were leading by one but needed to find an answer.

The Penguins were able to tie the game 12 minutes into the second thanks to Michael Bunting’s third goal of the season. That’s when the Blue Jackets started to take control of the game. They scored a great goal from Mathieu Olivier.

Olivier received a pass from Werenski and finished to make it 3-2. Coach Dean Evason said after the game that this goal “raised our team.” You can hear it from the bench.”

The Blue Jackets added three goals in the third from Voronkov, Damon Severson and an empty-netter from Cole Sillinger. Elvis Merzlikins earned just his second career win against the Penguins making 21 saves. During that time Tristan Jarry made 33 of 38 stops.

Evason made it a point to let the crowd know about their influence on the game. “You can hear it in our crowd. And by the way, the crowd at the end. Have they been singing that at the end of games? Because that was fun.”

The crowd erupted into a CBJ song. They also had “lovely names” in Pittsburgh.

With the win, the Blue Jackets improved to 6-8-2 on the season heading into Saturday night’s game in Montreal. The Penguins dropped to 6-10-3 and have a game Saturday night against the San Jose Sharks.