In Columbus, Sidney Crosby scored the first, and final two goals of the game for the Pittsburgh penguins on Tuesday night in a 5-3 win over the Blue Jacket. 
Crosby snapped a 3-3 tie late in the third when he made 4-3 to the Pens in the 15th minute of the third, then added an empty-net strike for his hat trick with under a minute left on the game clock.
“With every game I think you feel more and more comfortable,” Crosby said. “You know, I think as a team, I feel we know what our game looks like. We’re getting to it a little bit more. … It’s nice to get out there and just play on instincts and just read plays and play off one another and not think about the system or what you have to do too much. So, I think it’s coming and we’re getting to our game a lot more.”
Tristan Jarry made 27 saves in the win.
“I thought it was just a good team effort,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We stayed with it. It was a close game. [Columbus] hasn’t won many games lately, but they’re in a lot of games against a lot of good teams. … That’s a good young team over there. They’ve got a lot of good young players, but I was proud of the group. I thought our guys played hard.”
Pittsburgh moved to 8-6-0.
After Crosby gave the pens a 1-0 lead in the first period, Columbus replied with a pair goals to take a 2-1 lead.
Kirill Marchenko tied it, 1-1, midway through the first.
“We can say we’ve been close in a lot of games this year, we’re not finding ways to win,” Columbus’ Zach Werenski said. “In order to do that, it’s that extra play, that extra just little bit to get over the hump and to win these games or close them out. It’s tough right now. It’s frustrating for all of us.”
Yegor Chinakhov scored with 32 seconds left in th3e opening stanza for the 2-1 advantage to Columbus.
“I didn’t think the first period by any stretch was a bad period for us,” Sullivan said. “I felt like we were controlling most of the game, you know they got two goals on I think six or seven shots. It wasn’t like it was a barrage of opportunities we were giving up, they just happened to get a couple on some of the looks that they got. But I thought overall it was a pretty complete effort over the course of the game. I think the most important think is … when we get down in a game or we give up a goal or two, there is no panic. There is a certain quiet confidence about the group that we can get it back. You saw that in the third period also. We just stayed with it.”
In the middle frame,Jake Guentzel tied it at 2-2 with seven minutes gone in the period.
The Blue Jackets dropped to 4-8-4.
Erik Karlsson put the Penguins back in front, 3-2, at 8:40 of the third period.
Columbus had one last gasp when Alexandre Texier scored at at 11:45 of the final frame to knot it at 3-3.
“System-wise I think we were pretty good,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. “Managing the puck became an issue at some point, and the battles, 1-on-1s. So, the compete level, it’s not the systems … no systems are perfect, but the compete level at key times wasn’t good enough.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 36 saves in the loss.
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