Penguins 4, Blue Jackets 3: Evgeni Malkin broke out of his slump by recording his second career postseason hat trick as visiting Pittsburgh withstood a furious third-period comeback attempt to advance to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Brandon Sutter also scored and defenseman Matt Niskanen notched a pair of assists for the Penguins, who dispatched Columbus in six games and await the winner of the Philadelphia-New York Rangers first-round series. Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 24 shots as Pittsburgh nearly squandered a four-goal lead after blowing a pair of 3-1 advantages earlier in the series.

Defenseman Fedor Tyutin recorded a short-handed goal and an assist, Artem Anisimov converted a power-play opportunity and Nick Foligno also tallied for the Blue Jackets, who fell to 0-2 in their postseason history. Blue-liner Jack Johnson registered two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 24 saves.

Malkin opened the scoring 9:11 into the contest, receiving a pass from the left corner by Chris Kunitz and beating Bobrovsky from the bottom of the right faceoff circle to end his nine-game postseason goal-scoring drought. The Russian superstar doubled the lead during a power play with 6:47 remaining in the first period with a shot from the top of the slot that caromed in off the crossbar.

Sutter beat Bobrovsky with a backhander during a breakaway 34 seconds into the middle session and Malkin completed his clutch performance with 4:38 left with a shot from the inner edge of the left circle while on a 2-on-1 rush that made it 4-0. Columbus staged an improbable rally as Tyutin, Anisimov and Foligno scored over a 4:52 span in the latter half of the third, but the Blue Jackets were unable to get the equalizer.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Blue Jackets rookie C Boone Jenner had both his three-game goal-scoring streak and five-game point run snapped. ... Penguins captain Sidney Crosby notched an assist but saw his postseason goal-scoring drought reach 11 games. ... Sutter exited the contest in the second period and Pittsburgh C Joe Vitale left early in the third, both with undisclosed injuries. ... Malkin recorded his first postseason hat trick in 2009 against Carolina.