Zatkoff shutsout Blue Jackets as Penguins play impressive team defense to complete home and home series sweep

Deryk Engelland (2) scored his second goal of the season as a “forward” and backup goaltender Jeff Zatkoff made 19 saves to record his first NHL win and shutout, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins (11-4-0, 22 pts) to a 3-0 shutout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets (5-8-0, 10 pts) Saturday night for their fourth straight win.

Chris Kunitz (8) and Jussi Jokinen (7) also scored in the win for the Penguins who swept the home and home series with Columbus.

Friday night’s win was all about the play of Marc Andre Fleury and the Penguins quick strike ability, a 4-2 Penguins win. After seeing the Blue Jackets carry the play for stretches Friday night in what was a poor team effort defensively by the Penguins, tonight was a complete turnaround from a defensive standpoint.

The Penguins were tremendous defensively and made life easy for Zatkoff who did come up with a few big stops in the third period but wasn’t tested much in the game and the credit goes to the Penguins having a great commitment to team defense tonight. The Penguins gave up just 10 shots through two periods.

Of note, the Penguins got a very strong game from Paul Martin and Olli Maatta posted a team-high 4 blocked shots.

The Penguins again scratched Matt D’Agostini for the third straight game as he appears to have fallen into Dan Bylsma’s dog house. When will D’Agostini get back in? Beau Bennett is inching closer to returning to action.

Tanner Glass dinged up his right knee in the third period of Friday night’s 4-2 win but was a go for tonight and was very effective getting to pucks fast on the forecheck and leading the Penguins with 6 hits. Glass is second in the NHL with 64 hits. Last season he had 125 hits in 48 games.