With two goals in his first three games after Christmas, Dominik Simon doesn’t think there’s any elaborate or multifaceted reason for his recent success.

He suggests his approach has been pretty simple.

“What worked for me?” Simon asked rhetorically. “That I hit the net probably.”

Two things Simon never has been short of during his Pittsburgh Penguins career are self-effacing humor and shot attempts.

Goals? Those always have been, and likely always will be, another matter.

Before scoring the opening goal in a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators on Dec. 27, Simon had gone 23 games without a goal dating to Oct. 29. Overall, he has four goals and 15 points in 39 games this season.

“Just trying to stay on the puck, put pucks on the net,” Simon said. “If it doesn’t go well, you try to simplify it and hope for the best. That’s what I was looking for.”

Simon certainly got the best possible outcome when he scored in Nashville.

Off a pass from defenseman Juuso Riikola, Simon gained the offensive zone, pushed the puck below the left dot and fired a pedestrian wrister on net. The puck trickled between the legs of All-Star goaltender Pekka Rinne for a leaky goal.

In a 5-2 win against the Ottawa Senators on Monday, he scored a more impressive goal that required a little bit more effort as well as flair.

Pushing a puck up the left wing, Penguins forward Joseph Blandisi absorbed a hit on the half wall from Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot and chipped a pass to the slot. With a step on Senators forward Nick Paul, Simon lifted a backhander past goaltender Marcus Hogberg’s blocker on the far side.

“(Blandisi) made a nice space play right in front of me,” Simon said. “That helped me a lot. I lifted (the puck), and it went through the goalie.”

So what is going well for him offensively now, aside from the puck going in net?

“It’s going in the net,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan chortled. “Dominik gets a lot of scoring chances. And he does because he plays the game the right way. He’s strong on pucks. He’s a good playmaker. He’s pretty good on both sides of the puck. He has good awareness defensively. He’s got a pretty solid 200-foot game. But he’s always been a guy that generates a lot of scoring chances, both for himself and his linemates. We’re thrilled that the puck is going in the net for him. Hopefully it will continue to.”

The Penguins need for it to continue given the devastating injury All-Star forward Jake Guentzel suffered to his right shoulder Monday. Surgery will keep Guentzel, the team’s leading scorer with 20 goals, out four to six months.

As a result, Simon opened Thursday’s home game against the San Jose Sharks with an elevated role on the left wing of the second line with Jared McCann at center and Patric Hornqvist on the right wing.

“Everybody has to play their best,” Simon said. “(Guentzel is) obviously a great player. We’ve got to team up and play the game the right way, hard.

“Whatever chance comes, you have to adjust, get ready for it and take the opportunity as much as you can. But I feel like it’s about the whole team, not about one guy. The whole team, we have to step up. Play as a team, play at our best.”

Regardless of what opportunity or even responsibility has been created for Simon or his teammates out of Guentzel’s absence, Simon is sure of one thing.

Scoring is cool.

“It feels great obviously,” Simon said. “You want to go and score. You want to celebrate. After a lot time of not scoring and stuff, it feels amazing. Just got to try to keep it going and enjoy it.”

Note: Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry was named the NHL’s second star of December. During the month, Jarry appeared in nine games and had an 8-1-0 record along with a 1.54 goals-against average, a .947 save percentage and three shutouts.

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