PITTSBURGH -- Superlatives have come far too infrequently for the Pittsburgh Penguins' liking this season, but they were tossing them around liberally Wednesday night.

The Penguins overcame three two-goal deficits, played without a key player, lost a couple more to injury, withstood an overtime goal being waved off, killed a Columbus penalty later in overtime and got shootout goals from their star centers in a 5-4 victory over the Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena.

"It was a real character win," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought it was the most resilient this group has been all year long. Kind of a never-say-die attitude and just staying with it."

The win against Columbus had the Penguins feeling like they were at one of the peaks in a season that has also had some valleys.

"We stuck with it," said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, who along with Evgeni Malkin beat Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in the shootout, while Pittsburgh's Matt Murray stopped Pierre-Luc Dubois and Artemi Panarin -- who scored twice in regulation.

The Penguins' Jake Guentzel scored with 1:40 left in the third period to force a 4-4 tie. Conor Sheary, Phil Kessel and Malkin also scored for Pittsburgh (19-16-3), which finished its homestand 2-1-0 after a 2-5-0 slide.

"Definitely a character win tonight," Guentzel said. "You're down two in the third, you're going to be battle-tested. I thought we pushed to the end. Definitely nice to get those two points."

Sonny Milano and Boone Jenner staked Columbus (22-13-3) to a 2-0 lead in the first before Panarin, the team's leading scorer, added goals in the second and third for a 4-2 lead.

Sullivan improved to 5-1-1 as Pittsburgh coach against Columbus and his mentor, coach John Tortorella. The Penguins have won five in a row at home against the Blue Jackets,

Murray, who had 29 saves, is 3-3-0 in six straight starts since coming back from a lower-body injury. Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves.

Four of the past five meetings have gone to overtime.

Unlike their meeting last Thursday in Pittsburgh, a 3-2 Penguins shootout win, this game did not feature fights and hot tempers. Perhaps Pittsburgh was too busy chasing from behind despite playing without injured top defenseman Kris Letang, and losing defenseman Chad Ruhwedel and winger Bryan Rust to unspecified injuries during the game.

Milano and Jenner scored in the first for Columbus' first two-goal lead.

"I loved our start," Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. "We played exactly how we need to play. Just the reloading, the forechecking, the frustration you can see mounting in their team."

Sheary's 10th goal was Pittsburgh's first five-on-five goal at home since Dec. 9, a stretch of 231:33. He made it 2-1 at 5:57 of the second when he moved in from the right point and, from the dot, beat Bobrovsky with a shot that went off the inside of the goalie's right elbow.

Panarin increased his team-leading point total to 32 when he pulled up near the top of the right circle, deftly shaking Rust pressed into a defending role, and sailed a shot under the crossbar to make it 3-1 at 16:49.

Pittsburgh got back within 3-2 on Kessel's power-play goal at 3:34 of the third. His blast from the left circle hit Bobrovsky and then trickled over the goal line.

Panarin struck again at 10:02 of the third to make it 4-2. On a two-on-one, Murray stopped Josh Anderson, but Panarin pounced on a rebound to score from in tight.

The Penguins closed it to 4-3 on Malkin's goal at 14:24, seven seconds into a power play. Kessel's shot again squirted through Bobrovsky, and Malkin reached behind the goalie to finish the play.

Guentzel tied it when he batted in a cross-crease pass from Patric Hornqvist, who picked up his 200th career assist on the play.

The Penguins thought they won on a Crosby goal 23 seconds into overtime, but after a review it was ruled that defenseman Brian Dumoulin interfered with Bobrovsky, who lost his stick on a poke-check attempt on Dumoulin.

"I didn't try to hit him at all," Dumoulin said. "I was trying to put it in the net. After I tried to make that move, I stepped outside of the crease and kind of made a play on the puck.

"He was the one kind of tied up with me. I was trying to get out of there. I think I did everything possible I could to try to get out of that situation. Obviously, they thought different."

So did Tortorella, whose team got a four-on-three power play later in overtime when Guentzel high-sticked Panarin.

"Once you saw the replay, I mean, I don't know what the hell they were arguing about after -- it's a goalie interference," he said. "So we get a chance and then we get a power play, have a couple of looks, but we don't get it done."

NOTES: Pittsburgh D Matt Hunwick returned after missing one game due to illness. ... Columbus C Alexander Wennberg (back) and RW Cam Atkinson (foot) were placed on IR. ... Columbus C Tyler Motte and D Dean Kukan were recalled, LW Sonny Milano and LW Jordan Schroeder were added on emergency recall, all from AHL Cleveland. ... Columbus D Zach Werenski (upper body injury) participated in the morning skate but missed his fourth straight game. ... The game marked the start of a stretch of six in nine games within the Metropolitan Division for Pittsburgh, while Columbus plays its next 13 outside the division.