Nathan Legare probably won't ever forget the first game he played at PPG Paints Arena.
Veini Vehvilainen likely will remember it for a long time, too.
No matter how hard he tries not to.
Legare, the Penguins' third-round draft choice in June, scored two goals in a 23-second span in the third period to secure the Penguins' 4-1 exhibition victory against the Blue Jackets and recognition as the game's No. 1 star Thursday night.
He got the first at 6:03, collecting a loose puck off a faceoff and throwing it past Vehvilainen from below the right hash:
That goal hadn't even been announced when Legare produced the sequel, driving a low shot past Vehvilainen on the glove side from high in the slot:
"The momentum was on our side," Legare said. "We just forechecked hard and got a bounce."
Legare was celebrated as a goal-scorer in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League when he joined the Penguins. He will return to his club in Baie-Comeau, for which he scored 45 times last season, at some point with that reputation intact.
Maybe even enhanced.
"Nathan had a great game," Mike Sullivan said. "I think it's been obvious -- it's really jumped out at all of us -- his ability to shoot the puck. He can finish. He can really shoot it, and he likes to shoot it."
Legare finished the game with four shots, tying for the team lead. He isn't shy about shooting, no matter the league.
"It's just a mentality that you (take) onto the ice," Legare said.
And that's how memories are made.
• Matt Murray got his first game action since playing for Team Canada at the world championships this spring and stopped 27 of 28 shots, being beaten only by a point-blank shot from Sonny Milano in the second period. "It felt like forever since I played a game, honestly," Murray said. "I just tried to go in there and kind of feel it out, get your legs underneath you and try to get your timing back. It was a good game, in that regard."
• Evgeni Malkin doesn't often fare very well on faceoffs, but he was downright dominant against the Blue Jackets, going 9-3. Nick Bjugstad tied him for the team lead with nine wins on draws, but he also lost seven.
• Alex Galchenyuk scored his first goal of the preseason eight seconds into a power play, beating Columbus starting goalie Elvis Merzlikins with a nasty wrist shot from the top of the left circle at 6:28 of the opening period. Galchenyuk took a feed from Jake Guentzel and "decided to take a shot." He added that, "I saw an opening, and it went in." He is one of several candidates to take Phil Kessel's old spot on the No. 1 power play unit -- "We have a lot of options," Justin Schultz said -- and certainly looked comfortable there. In addition to scoring on one of their two power plays, the Penguins prevented Columbus from scoring on any of its five chances with the man-advantage.
• Guentzel scored the Penguins' other goal, chipping a bouncing puck past Vehvilainen at 12:26 of the second period for what proved to be the game-winner.
• The PPG Paints Arena ice often has been criticized and can be particularly bad when the sheet is new, but Sam Lafferty said he didn't have any problems with it. "It felt good to me," he said. "I didn't notice many issues, really. I thought it was a pretty good sheet."
• The Penguins blocked only nine shots, but defenseman Erik Gudbranson recorded one of those late in the third period, after the outcome had pretty much been settled. He said he had no qualms about putting his body in front of a puck at that point in a preseason game "because that’s how I’ll stay in the NHL. I never forget that."
• The announced crowd was 15,649, which suggests the Penguins did an arms-and-legs count, rather than a head count. Or perhaps they simply went with tickets-in-circulation, as opposed to the actual turnout.
• The Penguins, 1-0-1 in exhibition play, will be on the road for their next two games, visiting Columbus Saturday at 2 p.m. and Detroit Sunday at 5 p.m.
