The Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to start goaltender Arturs Silovs in Saturday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena.
Coach Dan Muse announced Silovs’ status following a morning skate in Cranberry.
In 21 games this season, Silovs has an 8-6-7 record, a 3.06 goals-against average, an .890 save percentage and one shutout.
Silovs has played the Blue Jackets twice this season. Most recently, he made 21 saves on 25 shots in a 5-4 overtime road win Jan. 4.
Notes:
• Penguins rookie forward Rutger McGroarty was cleared for contact and was a full participant in the morning skate, albeit as a reserve.
McGroarty is currently designated to injured reserve due to a concussion that has sidelined him for the past five games.
• The Penguins’ lines and pairs during their morning skate were:
67 Rickard Rakell – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust
59 Egor Chinakhov – 18 Tommy Novak – 71 Evgeni Malkin
39 Anthony Mantha – 81 Ben Kindel – 16 Justin Brazeau
19 Connor Dewar – 46 Blake Lizotte – 55 Noel Acciari
77 Brett Kulak – 58 Kris Letang
28 Parker Wotherspoon – 3 Jack St. Ivany
5 Ryan Shea – 75 Connor Clifton
27 Ryan Graves – 13 Kevin Hayes
• The top power-play unit included Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Rakell and Rust. The second power-play unit involved Brazeau, Chinakhov, Kindel, Kulak and Mantha.
• Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins is scheduled to start. In 16 games this season, Merzlikins has a 7-7-1 record, a 3.84 goals-against average and an .882 save percentage.
Merzlikins played the Penguins once this season, defeating Silovs, a fellow Latvian, in a head-to-head matchup, claiming a 5-4 shootout win at PPG Paints Arena on Oct. 25.
Merzlkins made 27 saves on 31 shots in that victory.
• Per the team’s website, the Blue Jackets’ projected lines and pairs are:
4 Cole Sillinger - 19 Adam Fantilli - 86 Kirill Marchenko
38 Boone Jenner - 23 Sean Monahan - 91 Kent Johnson
10 Dmitri Voronkov - 3 Charlie Coyle - 24 Mathieu Olivier
27 Zach Aston-Reese - 16 Brendan Gaunce - 82 Mikael Pyyhtia
8 Zach Werenski - 15 Dante Fabbro
9 Ivan Provorov - 78 Damon Severson
6 Egor Zamula - 44 Erik Gudbranson
Zamula is scheduled to face the Penguins for the first time since the team terminated his contract Jan. 6. The Penguins acquired Zamula in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 31 but he was suspended by the team on Jan. 3 after he failed to report to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Once the Penguins terminated his contract, he was signed by the Blue Jackets that same day, agreeing to a one-year contract with a prorated salary of $1 million.
• Coyle has 199 career goals.
• The scheduled referees are Jon McIsaac (No. 2) and Kendrick Nicholson (No. 30), while the linespersons are Julien Fournier (No. 56) and Scott Cherrey (No. 50).
