Penguins 3rd Round Pick Nathan Legare Scores Two, Penguins Beat Blue Jackets 4-1
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Penguins 2019 third-round pick Nathan Legare scored two goals in 23 seconds in a 4-1 victory over Columbus.
The Penguins dressed a lot of their players they expect to ice on opening night, including new Penguins winger Alex Galchenyuk who was acquired in a trade with Arizona for Phil Kessel.
Galchenyuk opened the scoring at the 6:28 mark of the first period on the power play when he ripped a shot past Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead.
Columbus would answer back in the second period when Sonny Milano scored the Blue Jackets lone goal, beating Matt Murray.
Just about five minutes later, the Penguins would answer back with an impressive goal from Jake Guentzel. Guentzel received a wobbly pass from Evgeni Malkin and he bounced the puck off the ice, knocked it out of mid-air, beating Veini Vehvilainen and restoring a lead the Penguins would not relent the rest of the game.
The third period would be the Nathan Legare show as he scored two goals within 23 seconds of one another, his first goals in a Penguins uniform. The first came off of a face-off scrum when Legare would get just enough of his stick on a puck that would fool Veini Vehvilainen by going five-hole.
His second goal came off of a Blue Jackets turnover that would land directly on his stick and a quick snap shot found the low glove side past Veini Vehvilainen, giving the Pens their winning score of 4-1.
Matt Murray stopped 27 of 28 shots for a .964 save percentage.
The Penguins next preseason game is the second of a home-at-home with the Blue Jackets, this time at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.