PITTSBURGH – This was the probably going to be the make or break point for the season for the Winnipeg Jets as they started a four-game road trip at the PPG Paints Arena against the defending Stanley Cup champs the Penguins.
Marc-Andre Fleury was sharp in net defeating the Jets – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
A tough trip that won’t get any easier and starting in one of toughest buildings to win on the road as the Penguins had only lost three games all season at home.
The spotlight and media circus surrounding the Penguins was also pretty crazy as captain Sidney Crosby was one point away from 1000 on his career.
Things started very early as Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring under a minute into the game with his 24th of the season , shortly after Chris Kunitz was the recipient of some vintage Crosby work and buried his ninth and 250th of his career to make it 2-0 Pens.
Crosby notched his 1000th NHL point on the goal and became just the 86th player in league history to hit this mark.
Marc-Andre Fleury got the start in the Pittsburgh net and he was sharp early on as he made a couple of key stops late in the first.
The Jets got on the board late in the second period as Patrik Laine beat Fleury for his 27th after some nice work from Mark Scheifele to make it 2-1 after forty.
The Jets started to use their size and speed in the second and slowly the physical play created more and more space and the momentum started to sway the Jets way.
Paul Postma scored his first to tie things at 2-2 , then four minutes later Dustin Byfuglien beat Fleury for his eighth to give the Jets a 3-2 lead.
With Byfuglien in the box Phil Kessel took a feed from Crosby and wired home his 21st a power play marker to square things at 3-3.
Connor Hellebuyck was in the pipes for the Jets and he was facing a very deep offensive Penguins team who can strike on all four lines.
Malkin stirred the pot with a questionable hit on Jets captain Blake Wheeler that the league will surely review. Although he was only assessed a two minute minor and later returned.
After intense pressure by the Jets these two were headed to extra time.
In overtime, it was only fitting that the captain ended the game on his special night with 21 seconds remaining Crosby scored his 31st of the season to give his Penguins a 4-3 OT win.
Winnipeg will head to Montreal to face the Habs on Saturday afternoon.
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