Pittsburgh Penguins stay hot with 4-2 win over Columbus Blue Jackets -NHL Update
Pittsburgh continues to roll and bumped up into number four of the Eastern Conference with their third straight win, this time over Columbus as Penguins dominated the Blue Jackets, 4-2, Sunday night, February 26, 2012, at the sold-out CONSOL Energy Center
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Penguins continued their policy of taking as many attempts at the opposing net as possible, which eventually worked out well. Coming out a 8-1 victory over Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh was charged as they played their second game in two nights.
"We kept going at it, just kept shooting," defenseman, Kris Letang, said. "To be honest, we didn't look at who were playing. Every game is important, and we need to get wins."
Columbus captain, Rick Nash, grabbed his 21st goal of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season midway through the second as his team was shorthanded with Derek Dorsett out with a minor penalty.
Evgeni Malkin picked up his fourth goal in two nights on the power play, bringing up the total to 37 this year with less than a minute remaining.
Pascal Dupuis, Kris Letang and Joe Vitale added three straight within a 10 minute time frame, giving Pittsburgh a huge advantage in the final period. Vinny Prospal added the last for Columbus with less than five minutes remaining, but failed to add another.
With the disappointing performance by Columbus for a number of seasons now as they still stand last in the major league, it is rumoured that they will be losing Rick Nash within the next 24 hours as well.
"When you're on a losing team, changes happen," Nash said. "It's unfortunate because we have a tight group of guys but we realize it's a business side of the game, too."
"There's been so many rumours, so many speculations, it's been tough on everyone," Nash added.
Pittsburgh is determined to continue winning and take over second place Boston Bruins with the way they have been playing recently. Penguins have the next against Dallas Stars on Wednesday.
Columbus Blue Jackets will be facing another tough team, Detroit Red Wings, on Tuesday, which certainly does not seem to be any way in their favour.
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