Blue Jackets rally, defeat Penguins in shootout

COLUMBUS -- Zach Werenski scored the tying goal in the third period and had an assist when the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in a shootout at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Damon Severson scored the deciding goal in the fifth round of the tiebreaker and Elvis Merzlikins stopped Evgeni Malkin.

The Penguins are 11-0-2 against the Blue Jackets since Dec. 12, 2019, and had defeated them three times in a row, including 3-2 on Thursday.

“It feels good,” Merzlikins said. “I tell you that it feels good. In five years, all the times I've played against them, I couldn't do it. Tonight, I did it.”

Merzlikins made 30 saves for the Blue Jackets (24-38-12), who ended a 0-5-1 skid.

“We're going to keep doing what we've been doing all year, promoting winning habits,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. “It's about effort, managing the buck, tracking. It's all of those little details that we've been building all year. Now the quality of our opponents is pretty intense for the rest of the season. As far as we are concerned, it's creating winning habits.”

Bryan Rust scored and had an assist, Drew O'Connor scored in a third straight game and Alex Nedeljkovic made 35 saves for the Penguins (32-30-11).

The Penguins are seven points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“We haven’t done a good enough job in overtime this year,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “That was a big point… There’s points to be had there.”

Rickard Rakell extended the Penguins lead to 3-1 at 8:59 of the third period before Kirill Marchenko cut it to 3-2 at 9:08 with snap shot between the circles.

“Yeah, that's huge,” Werenski said of Marchenko’s goal. “Got right back on the attack, (Marchenko) makes a great play. (Severson) makes a good play to him off the boards there. The start of the third wasn't great for us. Once we scored, we start playing better and kind of got us on the attack again.

“It’s fun to be anybody, to be honest. We’ll take it.”

Werenski tied it 3-3 at 11:47 with a snap shot from the left side.

“They got some momentum,” Crosby said. “We get the 3-1 lead then they get the second one the next shift. I think they got all the momentum from that. We weren’t able to grab the momentum after that.”

Mathieu Olivier made it 1-0 Columbus at 7:47 of the first period. He has goals in consecutive games to give him five for the season. It was his first short-handed goal in 160 NHL games.

The Penguins challenged for goalie interference on Cole Sillinger.

“The blue paint is the goalie’s domain,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “So, we felt like when a player goes into the blue paint on his own volition without getting pushed there then there’s a possible goalie interference.”

Nedeljkovic said at that point his focus was not to let the game get out of hand.

“Just make the saves you’re supposed to make,” he said. “That settles everybody down. It’s one less thing to worry about. They can focus on their stuff and play their game.”

O’Connor tied it 1-1 at 13:29 of the second period with a one-timer from low in the right circle after a cross-ice pass from Rust. He has 13 goals.

Rust scored from the left circle at 18:55 for the 2-1 lead. He one-timed Crosby’s pass through the slot for his 24th goal.

NOTES: Crosby has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in a four-game point streak. … Crosby has 60 points (20 goals, 440 assists) in 42 career games vs. the Blue Jackets. … Rust's goal marked the 306th goal that Crosby and defenseman Kris Letang have combined on in their NHL careers. … Penguins forward Michael Bunting took one shift early in the third period before exiting. Sullivan said he was sick. …  The Blue Jackets scored first in a sixth straight game. They had lost the previous five. They are 17-14-10 when leading 1-0. … Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner did not play because of illness. He leads the team with 22 goals and is third with 35 points in 58 games. …  Forward Cameron Butler was an emergency recall from Cleveland of the American Hockey League to replace Jenner and made his NHL debut. He arrived just before the game and skated one shift for 54 seconds beginning at 7:03 of the second period.