The confrontation between Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and the league's most Russian team, Columbus, was seen as one of the most interesting in the NHL regular season schedule on Tuesday.
For Mike Sullivan's team, it was of particular importance, since, according to local media reports, this week will be decisive for the club's management in light of the upcoming deadline.
The Penguins still have a mathematical chance of making it to the Stanley Cup, while the Blue Jackets are firmly in last place in the Eastern Conference and are largely looking toward next season.
And in this regard, head coach Pascal Vincent’s decision to leave Kirill Marchenko in reserve on the reporting evening might have looked somewhat alarming.
He explained this move by the need to maintain club standards.
“If we want to somehow beat the average, we have to go through this.
As for Marchenko, I feel his standards have dropped a bit in the last two games compared to his usual performance.
I believe that the intentions [in this situation] are correct.
We just want to get the best [result] out of him,” Vincent said.
However, in the absence of a partner in the Russian trio, Dmitry Voronkov and Yegor Chinakhov also did not shine.
The compatriots did not score any points, and their team was unable to put the pressure on the Penguins.
For the Blue Jackets, this defeat was the 14th in a row in Pittsburgh: the last time the team won an away victory there was in November 2015.
But as part of the hosts, Malkin, who has recently been one of the most criticized players on the team, gave a bright match.
He was reproached by both North American journalists and his own fans.
There were also objective reasons for this, since there was no stability at all in the Russian’s game.
He had a good start to the season, scoring four goals in five matches, but then began to experience one crisis after another.
Gradually, the dry streaks became significantly longer than the productive ones, and with the advent of the new year, the veteran scored only twice in 24 matches.
However, in March the situation began to improve.
First, Evgeniy distinguished himself in the match with Edmonton, and now he took an active part in the victory over Columbus, scoring a goal in the second match in a row and providing an assist.
The hosts took the game into their own hands from the very first minutes and outscored the opponent twice in the opening twenty minutes.
Esse Puljujarvi opened the scoring in the 14th minute, and in the 19th minute Malkin strengthened his team’s advantage.
He received a cool pass from Reilly Smith and sent the puck into the far corner of Jet Greaves' goal with a powerful shot.
The Penguins frankly failed in the second period, allowing their opponents to make 17 shots on target.
Goalkeeper Tristan Gerry had to work tirelessly, but twice he was powerless.
Moreover, the evil genius of “Pittsburgh” in the moment with the second goal of the “Blue Jackets” turned out to be none other than Malkin, who put his stick under the throw of Andrew Peake, who replaced Marchenko, and cut the puck into his own goal.
This is the second such case with the Russian: in January, he already scored an own goal in a lost match with Arizona.
However, this evening hockey fortune was on the side of the home team, who took the lead thanks to a ridiculous mistake by Erik Gudbranson.
The Canadian tried to throw the puck out of the zone, but hit Ricard Rakell, from whom the projectile ricocheted into the goal.
Columbus tied the game again in the third period, but the Penguins regained the lead in 22 seconds.
And then Malkin thanked Smith for the assist and provided him with an equally cool pass, with which the Canadian set the final score of the meeting - 5:3.
The Russian striker was recognized as the second star of the match.
After the meeting, he now has 48 points (18+30) this season.
In addition, Evgeniy scored for the 489th time in his overseas career and came close to the top 50 best snipers in the history of the league.
To catch up with Norm Ullman, he only needs to make one accurate throw.
Meanwhile, Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin scored his 21st victory in the current championship.
In the match with St. Louis, the Russian repelled 19 shots on his own goal out of 21. It is noteworthy that the first goal in the match was scored by compatriot Alexey Toropchenko, thereby setting a personal sniper record.
This goal was the 11th for the 24-year-old forward, who is in his third season in the NHL.
Before that, his best result was 10 goals in 69 games last regular season.
Despite the loss to the Blues, Toropchenko was recognized as the third star of the meeting.