Penguins, goaltender Tristan Jarry shut out Jets

Tristan Jarry isn’t the best goaltender in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Heck, one could make a case that he hasn’t been the Penguins’ best goaltender this season.

But he is an All-Star. In fact, he’s been christened with that honor twice in his career.

So the expectations of him are justifiably ample.

And he has largely failed to live up to them throughout most of the 2022-23 campaign.

Until Saturday, at least.

Stopping all 32 shots he faced, Jarry recorded his – and the team’s – first shutout of the season in a tight, defensive victory against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The triumph represents a high-water mark through the still early stages of the season for Jarry, who has yielded starts in favor of backup goaltender Casey DeSmith as recently as last week.

As for the shutout, it was the 12th of Jarry’s career and moved him ahead of his predecessor (Matt Murray) and the Penguins’ first number one goaltender (Les Binkley) for third place on the franchise’s career shutout list.

Murray and Binkley each had 11 during their tenures with the Penguins. Only franchise pillars Marc-Andre Fleury (44) and Tom Barrasso (22) rank higher than Jarry.

Like a lot of the Jets’ shots, Jarry deflected praise to his teammates when speaking with media in Winnipeg.

“The guys did a great job there boxing out early,” Jarry said. “It was allowing me to see a lot of pucks. I was seeing tips as well. And I thought I played well positionally.”

The victory wasn’t strictly a production by Jarry. The Penguins as a whole offered a disciplined effort that hasn’t exactly been a hallmark of their season.

Saturday’s win came against one of the more defensively stout outfits in the NHL. Entering the day, the Jets had allowed an average of 2.33 goals, the second-best figure in the league.

“This is the way we want to play,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “We were really good defensively. We were good through the neutral zone, good in our (defensive) zone, playing as a unit kind of all over the ice. We defended when we needed to, we got saves when we needed to and we made plays when we needed to.”

No one made any plays, at least as far as offense is concerned, in the first 40 minutes. That set the stage for Penguins forward Jason Zucker to break the stalemate 53 seconds into the third period with his fifth goal of the season.

Settling a clearing attempt by the Jets in the neutral zone, Penguins defenseman Jeff Petry backpedaled a bit into his own zone then banked a forehand pass off the right wing boards near the visiting penalty box to forward Evgeni Malkin. From behind the offensive blue line, Malkin offloaded the puck to Zucker, who gained the offensive zone then played a bit of hot potato with Malkin before unleashing a one-timer from the right circle that beat goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s glove on the near side. Malkin and Petry had assists.

Victory was secured at 18:26 of the final frame when Rust snapped a seven-game scoring slump with his fifth goal of the season thanks to some good fortune.

Trailing late, the Jets tried to pull Hellebuyck for an extra attacker but a puck was cleared into the Jets’ zone, prompting Hellebuyck to make an ill-advised attempt to play it off his own left wing boards. Penguins forward Sidney Crosby hounded Hellebuyck into a turnover in the left corner. Accepting the charity, Crosby dished a forehand pass to the slot for Rust, who plunked in an easy forehand shot. The only assist went to Crosby.

Penguins forward Jake Guentzel capped the scoring with an empty net score in the final seconds of regulation at the 19:56 mark. It was his team-leading 10th goal of the season and it came off assists from Rust and Crosby.

As for Jarry, his record improved to 6-3-2 after he offered his best performance of the season.

“I just thought he was tracking the puck, he was in control, he was big and I thought he made good decisions with his exchanges with our defensemen,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I liked everything about his game.”

Notes:

• The Penguins’ last shutout of the Jets was a 4-0 home win on Jan. 4, 2019. Murray made 33 saves in the victory.

• Malkin extended his scoring streak to six games.

• Guentzel leads the NHL with four empty-net goals this season.

• Zucker’s most recent game-winning goal came during a 7-3 road win against the Philadelphia Flyers on May 4, 2021.

• The Penguins’ healthy scratches were forward Kasperi Kapanen and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel. Kapanen, who carries a salary cap hit of $3.2 million according to Cap Friendly, has been a healthy scratch for five of the past six games.

• Jets forward Kyle Connor, who played at the junior level for the United States Hockey League’s Youngstown Phantoms over three seasons, appeared in his 400th career NHL game.