COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The puck kicked off the end boards and popped out in front of the Pittsburgh Penguins' empty net.
Skating to it with a two-goal lead, Gustav Nyquist won the race, tapped it home and sealed a 5-2 victory for the Blue Jackets on Friday night at Nationwide Arena.
It was his third goal of the game, the second hat trick of his NHL career and the first three goals he's scored as a Blue Jacket on home ice. It was also a big win against a Metropolitan Division rival and a good start to a back-to-back that concludes Saturday at the New York Islanders _ another key division game.
"This win is big, but we've got to win (Saturday)," said Nyquist, who also scored the game's first goal at 5:21 and capped a power play at 2:52 of the second period. "If we don't win (Saturday), then we're a .500 team again, so we've got a big game (in New York)."
This one was just as big and the Blue Jackets (11-10-4) played like it right from the start.
They dominated the first period, outshooting the Penguins 13-3 and getting off 18 more attempts (22-4), and continued to roll starting the second.
Despite Jake Guentzel tying it 1-1 with 2:03 left in the first, Columbus charged out in the second led by Foligno and Nyquist. Foligno hopped on a turnover during the first shift of the period and made it 2-1 just 26 seconds in. Nyquist's backhand on the power play made it 3-1 just 2:26 later and Foligno scored on a power play at 15:09 for a 4-1 lead.
Pittsburgh controlled the action in the third, but couldn't take advantage of two power plays. The Penguins went 0 for 4 on power plays in the game, as Joonas Korpisalo (29 saves) backed a strong Blue Jackets penalty kill with a good night in net.
It was exactly the kind of finish the Jackets needed after a penalty-marred 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, a loss that stung quite a bit.
"This was the only response," Foligno said. "It's just understanding that when we play to our identity, this is what the result is usually. Even when it's not, you can hang your hat on, 'OK, we gave everything we had.' The other night, it was so disappointing because it wasn't that feeling."
