Mike Sullivan got his first win as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and goalie Matthew Murray got his first NHL win in a 5-2 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Consol Energy Center. Sullivan lost his first four games since taking over for Mike Johnston on Dec. 12. The Penguins were outscored 15-4. Murray made 22 saves in his second NHL start. He made 24 saves in a 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
The Penguins were without captain Sidney Crosby (lower body) but scored four goals in the second period, including two by Phil Kessel, to take a 4-1 lead. The Blue Jackets had won two straight games.
Columbus took a 1-0 lead after Fedor Tyutin's shot ricocheted off the end boards and through Pittsburgh's crease. The puck slid past Trevor Daley and Evgeni Malkin before finding Alexander Wennberg, who one-timed a wrist shot past Murray 5:41 into the first period.
The Blue Jackets seemed poised to take a two-goal lead when Matt Cullen was called for a slashing penalty with Malkin already in the penalty box for elbowing, giving Columbus a 5-on-3 for 1:24 with 7:54 remaining in the first.
Ben Lovejoy saved one potential goal, but Columbus didn't generate much else during the two-man advantage that ended with one Blue Jackets shot.
After David Perron's shot was caught in Dalton Prout's skates to the right of the Blue Jackets crease, Malkin tied the game 1-1 with a wrist shot through goalie Joonas Korpisalo 3:06 into the second period. Malkin's goal was his eighth on the power play.
Kessel gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead 1:18 later. Scott Wilson sent Kessel on a breakaway with a pass an outstretched Kessel corralled with the tip of his stick blade. He faked a shot before placing a wrist shot under Korpisalo's glove.
Wilson's assist was his first NHL point in his second regular-season game.
Kessel scored again when he dropped to one knee to one-time a pass from Nick Bonino past Korpisalo's stick blade with 4:00 remaining in the second. The goals were Kessel's 10th and 11th of the season, and his first since scoring twice against the San Jose Sharks on Dec. 1.
David Warsofsky pushed Pittsburgh's lead to 4-1 on a power-play slap shot with 45 seconds remaining in the second. Malkin temporarily left the game after taking a knee-to-knee hit from Boone Jenner 7:03 into the second period. Bonino replaced him on the first line before Malkin returned a few minutes later.
Jenner scored 5:23 into the third period to make it 4-2. Malkin scored an empty-net goal with 1:29 remaining.
Murray was the 83rd pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. He was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Dec. 15 because goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has a concussion. Sullivan won 70 games as coach of the Boston Bruins from 2003-06.
Pens Quotes
Mike Sullivan: "Obviously, it's a relief. Everybody here wants to win. Everybody cares. When you go through a slide, everybody squeezes their stick a little bit more, and dealing with those pressures is part of the challenge. So, obviously to get a win tonight, before the Christmas break, I think guys can feel good about themselves.""I thought [Malkin] played real well. I thought he was a force. He's been a consistent threat game-in and game-out since I've been here."
Matthew Murray: "I think I made a couple saves when I needed to. I didn't have to be spectacular to win the game, but I think I was there when I needed to be, and I'd like to have one or two of those goals back, but I always say that, and we got the win. That's what matters, and I'm excited to get my first win out of the way."
Phil Kessel: "I felt good. I hadn't scored in a while. It's nice to get one, and that's a big win for us heading into the break."
Tortorella's Whine
"I thought we changed when we did squat on that 5-on-3. I thought things changed right there. It's just something where we have to park that. It was a lousy 5-on-3, but you have to park that. We weren't playing too bad up to that point. I just thought our whole game changed from there."Then, they played harder. They played harder than we did tonight and that's why they won."
http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2015/12/21/torts-malkin-acted-like-he-was-dead-after-jenner-knee-video/
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