Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin went into Game 6 of his first round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets with four playoff assists. He also hadn’t found the back of the net in his last nine postseason contests.
That was the longest playoff drought of his career, but he put it to an end midway through the first period of tonight’s game.
With his goal scoring slump finally over, Malkin started to make up for lost time. A little over four minutes letter, Malkin netted his second goal of the game during the Penguins’ first power-play opportunity of the night.
That put Pittsburgh up 2-0 going into the first intermission, but the Penguins can’t relax now. The team that scores first in this series is 0-5 and we’ve seen time and time again that two-goal leads aren’t safe.
With 40 minutes left and facing elimination, the Blue Jackets aren’t likely to go down quietly.