Penguins take control in 3rd period to handily defeat Devils at home

Tristan Jarry has his job figured out.

“All I’m trying to do is get in front of the puck,” the Pittsburgh Penguins backup goaltender said. “It’s something, I guess, is my job so I’m just going to try to do it to the best of my ability.”

He makes it sound so easy.

What he said he doesn’t know, and doesn’t appear eager to find out, is what his statistics are shouting from a small window of opportunity.

He started for only the sixth time Friday night, making 36 saves on 37 shots and helping the Penguins defeat the New Jersey Devils, 4-1, at PPG Paints Arena.

He said he doesn’t follow his own stats, but here they are in the event he might be paying attention: 1.81 goals-against average, 94.5 save percentage, with 10 goals allowed on 173 shots.

What Jarry has been paying attention to is the coaching he’s receiving as he tries to work toward becoming a consistent goaltender.

Coach Mike Sullivan and his staff sat down with Jarry at the end of last season to help nudge their 24-year-old goaltender toward that viewpoint.

“We felt as though his attention to detail and his focus in practice will translate to a more consistent game,” Sullivan said. “That’s been one of the hurdles Tristan has to overcome to establish himself as a bona fide, NHL, every-day goaltender. The importance of those daily habits, in my experience, is what helps a young player overcome that hurdle of consistency.

“It’s hard to be consistent in this league. There’s a grind to it. Your ability to overcome all those challenges is so critically important to a player’s opportunity to have success. That’s the discussion we had with Tristan at the end of the year, and we think he has taken it to heart.”

Jarry especially was consistent in the second period that started with him allowing the Devils’ Taylor Hall to score on the power play. But he stopped 19 other shots in those 20 minutes when the score was tied 1-1 or the Penguins had a 2-1 lead.

The Penguins broke the tie with 7 minutes, 33 seconds left in the second period when Evgeni Malkin took a pass from Bryan Rust and put the puck on Jake Guentzel’s stick just outside the blue line.

Guentzel was in the clear, so he had time to force Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to his right while keeping the puck on his stick and shooting toward the open side for his 11th goal.

In the third period, the Penguins put some space between the teams when Jared McCann and rookie John Marino, with his second career goal, scored unassisted with blistering slap shots.

Weary of playing into overtime three times in the previous 10 days, and losing them all, the Penguins held tight to the lead and won for only the second time in the past six games.

The Penguins scored first almost eight minutes into the game, taking advantage of the Devils’ difficulty clearing the puck after a faceoff to the right of Blackwood.

Dominik Simon controlled the puck and slipped it to Domink Kahun, who was cutting in front of the net. Kahun forced defenseman Mirco Mueller to fall flat, and he was clear to push a backhander to the right of Blackwood for his sixth goal of the season.

“It’s fun,” said Kahun of knocking down a defenseman without making contact with him. “That’s what the D is doing right now these days. They try to make the play, and it was good for me that I saw it right away.”

Kahun joined the Penguins this summer in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks for Olli Maatta. Sullivan said Kahun is getting comfortable with the Penguins’ way of doing things while building relationships with teammates and coaches.

“I think all of that helps a player, especially a young player like Dom. We feel he’s gaining more traction with every game he plays.

“He doesn’t score every game, but he makes a half-dozen plays a game that give us a chance to score.”