Blue Jackets bring fight against Penguins home to Columbus

Series all but in the bag.

What else do we know as we head into Game 4?

The Columbus Blue Jackets rookie took to social media Sunday night to post a simple message with a picture of his bruised and scarred face: "Playoff hockey".

The Blue Jackets never gained possession, but there is some gray area. Instead of focusing on grinding the Penguins down, maybe they should start to focus on putting the puck in the net. Then he was moving side to side, maneuvering, dancing, twirling, back and forth.

Montreal 3, N.Y. Rangers 1: Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist to lead the Canadiens over the Rangers in NY, giving Montreal a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.

The Blue Jackets have had no answers for the Penguins' top-two lines, but the scoring doesn't stop there.

Giving defensemen Nick Holdman and Pavel Buchnevich some more time on the ice, starting aggressive and managing the puck afterward, then tightening up for the waning minutes of play, NY finally found a way to prevent another dose of late Habs heroics and, more importantly, snap its home playoff losing streak.

Jake Guentzel scored a shorthanded goal while Pittsburgh had an extra attacker to make it 5-4 with 28 seconds left in the third period, but the Penguins did not have another shot.

Savard was left standing straight up, probably out of gas, after feebly trying to corral Crosby on the boards. Pittsburgh got the late goal but ran out of time. He still has not played a lights-out game all series, which has to make the Penguins feel good despite the loss.

"They've all been good games".

Eleven seconds into the game, Dubinsky put a shot on Fleury's pads and Atkinson was in the right place to score on the rebound, pumping up a sold-out Nationwide Arena crowd hungry for some playoff prosperity.

According to the rulebook, if a player is injured and can not continue to play, the play of game shall be stopped once the injured player's team has possession of the puck.

The biggest save might have been a shot by Brandon Dubinsky that Fleury took off his mask seven minutes into the overtime. Hard-hitting winger Zack Kassian has turned into a clutch goal-scorer in the playoffs with the game-winners in back-to-back contests to give Edmonton the lead in the series after dropping the opener in overtime. Despite the fact that he let in four goals in game three, he still kept the Penguins in the game.

Lundqvist kept it scoreless as he stopped Andrew Shaw on a breakaway midway through the first period.

But the Penguins regained their composure and pushed back hard during the second period to tie the score at 3-3.

Maybe it was well-deserved after a couple bad breaks went against the Penguins.

Werenski was a rising star for the Blue Jackets, having scored a power-play goal in the first period of game one of the series against the Penguins, and established himself throughout the regular season as a core player, at just age 19.

The Blue Jackets wasted little time revving up their dormant offense after the puck dropped. It just seems like, despite knowing better, Columbus can't resist the urge to hulk up and play tough-guy hockey. "Then, we can decide how we approach the rest of the series from there".