PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkins favourite running mate is serving a five-game NHL suspension. Jay Bruce Jersey . No matter. The Pittsburgh Penguins star can handle things by himself when he needs to. Malkin scored in his return from a lower-body injury, Sidney Crosby added his 16th goal, and the Penguins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 on Monday night. Pittsburgh won its sixth straight home game behind 32 saves by Marc-Andre Fleury and some vintage work by Malkin. The Russian missed Pittsburghs previous two games after hurting himself in a game-day skate on Thursday. He appeared to be just fine when he bulled his way toward the Columbus net 4:16 into the second period for his eighth goal of the season. Malkin brushed off defenceman Jack Johnson and then deftly poked a shot past the outstretched stick of goalie Curtis McElhinney. Not bad for a guy who sometimes struggles when separated from linemate James Neal, who served the first game of the suspension he received for kneeing Bostons Brad Marchand in the head during a loss on Saturday. "Theres no doubt theyre good together," Crosby said. "Theyre both really good players. When they dont have each other, theyre capable of making plays, too." Crosby pushed his point total to an NHL-best 43 when a centring pass from Pascal Dupuis deflected off Crosbys leg and into the net 8:52 into the third. "It looked like that was the only way I was going to score tonight the way it was going," Crosby said. "I had some really pretty chances that didnt go in ... that second one ended up being important for us." Matt Calvert scored with less than a minute left for Columbus, spoiling Fleurys shutout bid. McElhinney made 28 saves but the Blue Jackets struggled again in Pittsburgh. The Penguins have won all three meetings this season by a combined score of 9-3. "You never want to go 0-3 against a division rival," Calvert said. "Theyre four-point games, and you lose a lot of points in the race." Fleury was sharp when tested, though the Penguins did an excellent job of keeping the Blue Jackets from spending too much time in his face. There were few close calls by the Blue Jackets after the opening 10 minutes. Fleurys only mistake came when he narrowly missed scoring a goal into an empty net with a minute to play, inadvertently sparking a sequence that led to Calvert getting loose for his second goal of the season with 56 seconds remaining. Pittsburgh, which allowed two goals to Boston in the final minute on Saturday, didnt collapse this time. "The main thing is we got the win, got the two points," Fleury said. "Thats what matters." The Blue Jackets are hoping to take a step forward this season after moving over to the Eastern Conference following 13 mostly dismal seasons in the West. Injuries, however, have slowed their development. Columbus is missing forwards Marion Gaborik and Nathan Horton, defenceman James Wisniewski, and reigning Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky. Gaborik and Bobrovsky are out until after the new year. Horton is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury. The Blue Jackets had won three of four, including consecutive shutouts over Tampa Bay and Minnesota, to climb within three games of .500. They controlled play at the outset, controlling the puck for long stretches but had trouble generating solid scoring chances. "We didnt have clean shooting lanes," Columbus coach Todd Richards said. "They created a lot of second chances, it seems like they created rebounds off Macs pads, and it seems like our shots were caught or hit (Fleury) in the chest." In addition to Neal, the Penguins also played without defencemen Paul Martin, Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi. Orpik is sidelined indefinitely after being knocked out by Bostons Shawn Thornton on Saturday. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said Monday that Orpik is "doing quite well" but issued no timetable for his return. NOTES: The Blue Jackets scratched Wisniewski, D Tim Erixon and forward Jack Skille. ... Pittsburgh also scratched forward Harry Zolnierczyk and D Brian Dumoulin. ... The Penguins are 8-1 when they have been outshot. Zack Wheeler Jersey .Airport spokeswoman Heather Lissner said that all departing flights were back on schedule. However, arriving flights were still trying to catch up.Super Bowl Sunday got off to an inconvenient start for hundreds of passengers trying to get to Phoenix for the game. Keith Hernandez Jersey . With his father watching from the stands, Harrison homered, doubled, single and drove in a career-high five runs to lead the Pirates to a 8-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday. http://www.metsrookiestore.com/Mets-Darryl-Strawberry-Kids-Jersey/ . NORRIS COLE (Heat): Its funny, you watch a guy play and now really produce and it just jumps off the page at you - why? You put a young player with potential in a winning environment where there is veteran leadership, outstanding coaching and management and a way that things are done and its a wonderful environment for growth, improvement in a climate of constant accountability and expectation of achievement/production. KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- Within the span of a minute or two, Saskatchewan was out and Quebec was in the playoffs at the Canadian mens curling championship, and only partly because of Jean-Michel Menards 7-5 upset win over Kevin Koe of Alberta. Even with Quebecs victory, Saskatchewan skip Steve Laycock was up one with the hammer and had an open draw against three to beat New Brunswick and force Menard into a tiebreaker. Laycock was heavy with the final stone and it proved costly. "We knew that we had to win," said Laycock. "We knew it was in our control to try and get in that tiebreaker and just didnt finish that game out, a really poor last end." A complicated formula based on draws to the button was used to determine the seedings of the top three rinks. Saskatchewan finished at 6-5, tied with Newfoundland and Labradors Brad Gushue and New Brunswicks Jamie Grattan. Had Menard lost, there could have been a four-way tie for fourth place and a round of afternoon tiebreakers. Instead hell now get to play Manitobas Jeff Stoughton on Saturday in the 3-4 Page playoff game. Manitoba, Alberta and B.C.s John Morris all finished at 9-2. Menard, the 2006 champion whos making his fifth Brier appearance for Quebec, was 7-4 although he beat each of the top three teams in the round robin. "Our goal was to make it to the playoffs and there you never know whats going to haappen . Travis dArnaud Jersey. ... if theres still some magic in our bag well try to use it," he said. Menard seemed in control throughout the game and got a boost with a three-point end in the fifth. Koe, who was solid all week, finished with a 76 per cent rating and his teammates struggled as well. Koe insisted he wasnt worried the same thing will happen when he faces Morris in the 1-2 Page playoff on Friday evening. "That end we gave up three was bad luck," said Koe. "I threw mine good, we had lots of options. You can hit about a millimetre where it just didnt work out for us and thats what happened for us. So thats just a bad break. Other than that were throwing it good so Im not really worried." Laycock was making his fourth appearance at the Tim Hortons Brier although this was the first time he threw fourth stones and served as skip. He was even with Grattan through seven, until a big three in the eighth end gave him a healthy lead. Grattan responded with a deuce in the ninth before taking the win, which left Laycock visibly upset afterwards. Prince Edward Islands Eddie MacKenzie (4-7) finished the round robin with an 11-7 win over Jamie Koe of Northwest Territories/Yukon (3-8). Ontarios Greg Balsdon (5-6) capped his Brier debut with a 9-6 win over Jamie Murphys winless Nova Scotia team (0-11). Northern Ontario was also well back at 2-9. ' ' '