Blue Jackets beat Penguins in Game 4 to keep season alive

The Blues have a 3-1 lead heading into Game 5 on Saturday in Minnesota.

Kessel staked them to a lead they never lost with a man-advantage goal at 9:07 of the first period in Game 5, and Crosby’s power-play goal at 5:31 of the third all but officially ended the Blue Jackets season.

Goaltending was a major factor in this series but not at all in the way it was expected. Murray tweaked a lower-body injury in pregame warmups and all of a sudden Fleury was back in his old spot.

The Penguins played great defence and Marc-Andre Fleury made some spectacular saves to keep the lead. And in their own conference, those Eastern teams will see a handful of tough match-ups mixed in with a dominant Penguins team that has looked every bit a club ready to fight for a second-straight Stanley Cup.

For a brief moment, it appeared that the Jackets had tied the game, but the goal was called back and an interference penalty assessed to Alexander Wennberg.

Playing in his first National Hockey League postseason, Jake Guentzel has shown that he is ready for the bright lights of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The game then went to overtime after a scoreless third period.

Columbus, if it wants to get to Game 6 Sunday at home, will most likely have to have a strong start, middle and ending.

The Blue Jackets staved off elimination and avoided the sweep with a win at home in game four but now continue their uphill battle as they head into Pittsburgh on Thursday night looking for another victory in enemy territory.

4-1 series win and on to the next round for this Pittsburgh Penguins team.

It’s a long ride to getting the most important first on their minds (first Blue Jackets comeback from a 3-0 deficit), but they took that initial leap tonight.

The Penguins answered to pull within one again at 2:10 of the third on Kuhnhackl’s goal.

No one’s going to remember that call, not when there was a series-long decider in play: Sergei Bobrovsky was bad. With the Blackhawks out and the second-seeded Wild on the ropes, who’s to say that Peter Laviolette won’t spring another surprise eleven years after he shocked the world?

The Penguins scored Game Five’s first three goals, including two tallies from Bryan Rust.

In fact, Crosby did just that, scoring on a one-timer from Evgeni Malkin for a power-play goal and some breathing room at 5:31 of the third before Scott Wilson scored 51 seconds later on a backward tip to give the Penguins an insurmountable 5-2 lead.

San Jose played another good road game through 57 minutes, much like the one that they won in Game 1.

Does Columbus weather the storm? .

That goal would need review to confirm Jenner’s stick was below the crossbar at the point of contact, but was upheld, and suddenly it felt like a whole new game going into the final 20 minutes of play.

This time on the power play Jenner would benefit from a complete breakdown by the Penguins defense.

Unlike the previous games, Pittsburgh would come out firing in this one.

The team’s key parts should return, with the core of Brandon Dubinsky, Brandon Saad and Nick Foligno locked up through 2020, and most others signed at least through next season.