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NHL Game Summary - Columbus at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Evgeni Malkin picked up two goals and one assist as Pittsburgh toppled Columbus by a 5-3 count at CONSOL Energy Center.

Steve Downie, David Perron and Derrick Pouliot also lit the lamp for the Penguins, winners of four straight games after dropping three in a row.

Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby each contributed a pair of assists while Marc- Andre Fleury came up with 22 saves.

James Wisniewski, Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno scored for the Blue Jackets, whose losing streak reached six games.

Curtis McElhinney played well in defeat, making 36 stops.

"We have to find something we can hang our hat on, as far as pride and how we play," Columbus head coach Todd Richards said. "We've lost some games. You go back to last night's game and how we played, and there were some good things here, it's just that consistency and being able to stick with it and doing it for 60 minutes."

McElhinney sprawled just beyond his crease to stop a Crosby breakaway over a minute into the second, but he couldn't halt a deflected Perron pass at the left side during a 5-on-3 at 2:34.

Malkin made it 3-1 at 4:20 on a knuckler from the left circle and Pouliot potted a Crosby rebound that deflected off Patric Hornqvist during a one-man advantage for a three-goal margin at 17:07.

Downie provided the Pens a 5-1 edge just 18 seconds into the third on a quick wrister from the edge of the right circle.

Johansen's short-handed strike at 5:37 pulled Columbus within three and Foligno beat Fleury with 54 seconds to play, but the visitors could get no closer with an extra skater.

"They have a couple of good players injured, and we played at home. We know we're a good team too and we had a couple days of rest and we showed great hockey tonight," Malkin noted.

Wisniewski capitalized during a 4-on-3, beating Fleury with a one-timer from the left circle through a Scott Hartnell screen with 2:27 to play in the first.

Malkin tied the game on a seeing-eye backhander through a Chris Kunitz screen and inside the near post from the right wing just 65 seconds prior to the first intermission.

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