Pittsburgh's team captain got off to a dream start to the match when he passed Brian Dumoulin to 1-0 after just 32 seconds.

And then the evening had just begun for "The Next One".

Columbus turned 0-1 to 2-1, but that lead lasted only 45 seconds before Crosby equalized with his first goal.

There were only 29 seconds left of the first period when the Canadian hit a bouncing puck from close range.

"Decent bonus"

He then put the knife in the Blue Jackets in game five-on-three when he put 4-2 with a quick direct shot after 13.32 in the third and final period.

Crosby completed his hat trick in an empty net when he from far down in his own zone walled the puck through the rim, at the height of the middle zone, and into the goal.

Skillful - but was that the point?

Afterwards, Crosby said it was meant to be a pass to chain mate Bryan Rust.

- I expected him to go straight so when he turned away I missed him.

Then I was most upset that it would be icing so that the puck went in was a decent bonus, says Crosby according to Aftonbladet.

Nyquist tops the statistics

The victory was Pittsburgh's fourth in a row and the red-hot penguins have now won 15 of their last 17 games from December 4 onwards.

Svenske Gustav Nyquist satte 1-1 för Columbus i numerärt underläge i den första perioden. Han snodde då pucken från Jevgenij Malkin, utmanade ryssen en mot en, missade sitt första skottförsök men satte det andra.

Målet var hans fjärde i spelformen den här säsongen, flest av alla i NHL den här säsongen och bara ett i från Rick Nash klubbrekord på fem mål i numerärt underläge säsongen 2008/2009.

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