PENGUINS

Over his first five games in a Pittsburgh uniform, Connor Dewar showed his ability to establish a net-front presence en route to turning a goose egg into his first three goals of the season. And in his sixth game, he played the role of facilitator by helping set up the Penguins' opening goal in tonight's win over the Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena. 

The sequence started with Ryan Graves preserving a puck in the attacking zone before delivering a quick pass over to Kris Letang on the right side. Letang dumped the puck in off the end boards and Dewar was there to collect it to the right of Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. Dewar didn't have a good angle to shoot, but he did enough to whack a centering pass toward the blue paint, where a deflection off the stick of Phil Tomasino in front ultimately trickled toward Evgeni Malkin. Malkin finished off the sequence with a back-hand shove that beat Zach Werenski's attempted clear:

The role Dewar played in securing his first assist anywhere stood out to Mike Sullivan as one of the reasons why he was tasked with top-six duty, his first work with Malkin and Tomasino since March 9. 

In the 12:48 in which Dewar, Malkin and Tomasino were on the ice together at five-on-five, the Penguins outshot the Blue Jackets 9-4, controlling 64.29% of the shots. No other line was on the ice for more shots for than against. Dewar had four of those shots in logging a season-high 16:36 of ice time. When he specifically was on the ice at five-on-five, the Penguins owned an 11-5 shot advantage, controlling 68.75%. That led the whole team.

"We think he's a good puck pursuit guy in battles, he can force turnovers, put defenseman under pressure and he brings a physical edge to our team, and that line in particular," Sullivan said. "He also goes to the net and is willing to go to the net, and that's one of the things, on Geno's line in particular, that we look for. Connor's a guy that's willing to do that, as well. He was a big part of that goal, obviously."