Ian Cole

Johansen hit knocks glass out of mooring ... and life into Pens

Published Dec. 22, 2015 4:20 a.m. ET

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It’s been a long season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Did they finally get the jolt they needed to get going on Monday night?

To review, here are the uh … highlights? … of the Pens’ season:

● On Dec. 12, the club fired head coach Mike Johnston and replaced him with Mike Sullivan

● Pittsburgh promptly went out and lost the first four games under Sullivan

● The team entered Monday with 33 points through 32 games -- sixth in the Metro Division

● Captain Sidney Crosby was injured in Saturday night’s loss to Carolina and miss Monday’s game

So … fast forward to Monday and the Columbus Blue Jackets, one of only two Metro teams with fewer points than Pittsburgh. (Of course, the Hurricanes are the other.)

Sure enough, less than six minutes into the game the Penguins were down 1-0 at home. Then came the hit that Ryan Johansen put on Ian Cole in the video above. The hit was so hard it knocked the pane of glass right out of its mooring. And hard enough, apparently, to shake some life into the Penguins’ offense.

After the hit, the Penguins scored four straight goals and stomped the Jackets 5-2 for Sullivan’s first win behind the Pittsburgh bench.

To his credit, Johansen gave his stick to a fan nearly hit by the glass.

"Obviously, it's a relief," Sullivan said. "Everybody here wants to win. Everybody cares and when you go through a slide, everybody squeezes their stick a little bit more and that's part of dealing with those pressures, is part of the challenge. To get a win tonight before a Christmas break, guys can feel good about themselves."

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report

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