Malkin ties career high for points in playoff series

Five games. Two goals. Nine assists.

That's the performance Evgeni Malkin put in for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a five-game series win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, putting himself well in the playoff scoring lead.

And all this after missing the final 13 regular-season games with an upper-body injury.

Benefiting from his offensive outburst was both Bryan Rust (five goals) and Phil Kessel (two goals), who are loving life as Malkin's linemates.

The 11 points in a series matches a career high for Malkin, although it took him six games to hit that mark in a series win over the New York Islanders in 2013.

Malkin, of course, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP in 2009 after recording 14 goals and 22 assists in 24 games, hitting point totals of nine, 10, nine, and eight in each round, respectively.

All that to say, Malkin is rolling and has emerged as the clear (but very early) MVP favorite.