PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby and Scott Wilson scored 51 seconds apart in the third period to help the Pittsburgh Penguins eliminate the Blue Jackets with a 5-2 win in Game 5 of their first-round series on Thursday night.
“We don’t want to say ‘next year’ anymore,” said center Brandon Dubinsky. “The time is now, we got to step up, everybody’s got to accept the responsibility and we’ve got to do better next year.”
William Karlsson and Boone Jenner scored for the Blue Jackets, but Sergei Bobrovsky stopped just 27 of 32 shots to finish a forgettable series.
Bryan Rust scored twice for Pittsburgh, Phil Kessel added his second of the playoffs and Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 49 saves.
“We had a lot of chances, I think we had over 30 chances…We needed to capitalize, coach John Tortorella said. “We didn’t, they did.”
The defending Stanley Cup champions will face the winner of the Toronto-Washington series in the conference semifinals starting next week.
Defenseman Zach Weresnki, who missed the final two games of the series with a facial fracture, was named a finalist for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.