Saad, Jackets upset Pens

Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for the Penguins but Pittsburgh went 0-for-6 on the power play.

The Blue Jackets knew it wasn’t good news when Brandon Dubinsky had to be scratched from Friday night’s lineup about an hour before puck drop.

The Columbus Blue Jackets secured just their fifth win of the campaign on Friday, sinking the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 at Consol Energy Center.

The Arizona Coyotes look to continue their impressive start to the season as they head into Columbus to battle the underachieving Blue Jackets looking to regain their spot atop the Pacific division. He has 20 points in 14 regular-season contests against the Blue Jackets.

With under 15 seconds remaining, it appeared that Hornqvist scored again on a scrum in front of Bobrovsky’s net, but the game-tying goal was quickly waved off by officials. “They’re a good team and they’re playing with a ton of confidence right now”.

“He has played really well”, Tortorella said.

Saad assisted on left winger Scott Hartnell’s sixth goal in eight games 11:08 into the second period, then scored his first career goal against the team he grew up watching 1:41 later on a power play.

Fleury, who played a strong game with 26 saves despite the result, denied Saad a second goal by stopping him on a 2-on-1 break during the third period. That’s not exactly what Pittsburgh had in mind when it acquired Phil Kessel to pair with stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

That was more than enough for Bobrovsky, who handled Pittsburgh’s bafflingly punchless power play easily. Only Carolina is worse with the man advantage at this point in the year. Pittsburgh’s best sequence came late in the second period when the top unit kept Bobrovsky busy only to have a slap shot from the left circle by Malkin clang off the crossbar with Crosby raising his arms in frustration as time ran out in the period.

“We knew we only had so much time”, Johnston said.

The biggest problem for Johnston was his team’s “shooting mentality”.

Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky has been placed on injured reserve and will miss two to three weeks because of an elbow injury, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said this afternoon.