Crosby scores late, Penguins rally past Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS --Sidney Crosby scored the go-ahead goal with 2:14 left in the third period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for a 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Sunday.

Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins reached over his head for the puck, but Crosby, who was entangled with Columbus forward Jack Roslovic, knocked it to the ice and scored from the edge of the crease. The Blue Jackets challenged for goalie interference, but video review determined the contact between Crosby and Merzlikins was incidental outside the crease.
"Sid's goal at the end, I just think is just personifies the resilience that this team showed tonight," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said.
Evgeni Malkin also scored in the third period, and Casey DeSmith made 32 saves for the Penguins (33-14-8), who won 1-0 against the New York Rangers on Saturday to end a three-game losing streak. Bryan Rust had two assists.
"We hadn't had one of those in a little while," Rust said of the win Saturday. "We were looking forward to building on that, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that tonight."

Roslovic scored and had an assist, and Merzlikins made 37 saves for the Blue Jackets (27-25-1) in his first start in five games because of a lower-body injury.
"Agree to disagree," Columbus coach Brad Larsen said of the call on the go-ahead goal. "They made their call. We have to live with that. Once I saw [Crosby] was not pushed, I was feeling pretty good about that, but we didn't get it.
"It's a tight game. It was a one-shot game at the end, [but] they got the bounce."
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored at 4:43 of the first period with a one-timer in the left face-off circle from a cross-ice pass by Roslovic to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead. It was Bjorkstrand's 100th NHL goal in his 353rd game.
"Every milestone is a good feeling," Bjorkstrand said. "It would have been better with a win."
Chad Ruhwedel tied it 1-1 at 19:11 on wrist shot from along the right boards beyond the circle that deflected off Columbus defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.
Roslovic gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 8:39 of the second period with a wrist shot from the right dot.
Malkin tied it 2-2 at 11:54 of the third period with a power-play goal, tapping in a pass from Rust. The goal came 23 seconds after Sullivan used the Penguins' timeout with 1:06 left on the power play to rest his top unit.
"The more he wants the puck, the more he has the puck, I think the more dangerous he is," Rust said of Malkin. "I can see it when he gets that little kind of top step going that he's feeling it, and he's been great lately."

Malkin' goal came less than three minutes after Penguins defenseman Mark Friedman cleared a loose puck at the goal line at 9:11. DeSmith made a save on Gustav Nyquist, and the rebound went to Emil Bemstrom, whose shot hit the post, went off DeSmith's back and rolled partially over the line until Friedman knocked it away.
"I just heard the crowd cheering," Friedman said. "I didn't know if Casey had full possession of the puck. I just looked behind him, and the puck was still trickling across the goal line. Thankfully, I was there to make the save."
NOTES:With his 74th game-winning goal, Crosby tied Mario Lemieux for third on the Penguins' all-time list behind Jaromir Jagr (78) and Malkin (75). Crosby's goal was his 1,375th NHL point, which moved him past Mike Modano for 25th all-time. … Pittsburgh is 9-3-2 on back to backs this season (5-1-1 in the first game, 4-2-1 in the second). … Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson missed his fourth straight game because of an upper-body injury. … Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski (upper body) did not play for a third straight game. … Bemstrom played for the first time in 10 games and had two shots on goal in 7:47 of ice time. He missed six in NHL COVID-19 protocol. … Roslovic played his 100th game for his hometown Blue Jackets. He has scored 58 points (21 goals, 37 assists).