Just looking at the basic numbers, Tristan Jarry hardly stood out on Sunday.
He was nowhere near the All-Star that was for most of the 2019-20 season.
There was no point in the 2020-21 season when he was in that zip code.
But he was better off on Sunday than in the first month of this campaign.
With 28 saves in 31 shots, the Penguins’ best goalkeeper defended himself against a tough Washington Capitals challenge and won the 6-3 victory at PPG Paints Arena.
Jarry’s final period may have been the most impactful of the season. He faced only eight shots in the final 20 minutes of regulation – the Penguins controlled the game for most of the third with 17 shots – but several of Jarry’s stops were of high quality from strikes by a strange man and in areas in and around your fold.
And they came with the Penguins defending a goal advantage for most of the period.
First came the stoppage of former Penguins striker Conor Sheary in a two-on-one race with just 53 seconds to go. This was followed by a Capitals striker Richard Panik’s 3:20 mark. And perhaps most strikingly, a denial of Capitals defender John Carlson on a right-wing slapper rocket at 11:29 am, despite having been thrown on ice twice by teammate PO Joseph.
Jarry was hardly perfect, but he did – to use a Mike Sullivan-ism – timely saves.
“He made some good saves for us at important times,” said the Penguins coach via video conference. “This is what you need from your goalkeeper to win games and be successful in this league. Tristan took a big step tonight. He made great defenses for us. I thought we had defended a lot in front of him. But certainly, when we broke, he was there to make the big stops. ”
Things got worse early, with Capitals striker Evgeny Kuznetsov, who scored his second goal of the season in a 5:18 power play in regular time.
But the Penguins reacted when striker Bryan Rust scored his fourth goal at 10:29 of the first. Then Penguins striker Brandon Tanev scored his fourth goal just 32 seconds later.
Just 3:26 in the second period, Capitals striker Jakub Vrana scored his fourth goal in a rebound.
The Penguins had a rarity at 6:44 of the second period, when Rust scored in a game of strength. It was the first goal the Penguins scored in seven games and broke a slippage from 0 to 21 with the advantage of men.
“We just got back to basics,” said Rust of his team’s efforts to fix power play. “Just trying to feed on each other. I’m not trying to think too much and just trying to put discs on the net. ”
They achieved something even more rare exactly four minutes later, when they took the first advantage of two goals of the season thanks to the goal of striker Jake Guentzel, the fifth.
“It’s definitely good to have a little pillow,” said Rust. “Obviously, you don’t want to sit back and be happy and let the other team go back up. But it was definitely good to see our efforts pay off. ”
A backhand goal by Capitals striker Nicklas Backstrom, his seventh, reduced the lead to one at the end of the second at 17:49
But that was the final attack that visitors would enjoy, thanks to the hosts’ strong possession of the disc.
“I thought we played very well five against five,” said defender Cody Ceci dos Penguins. “It’s a big and strong team and we tried to match that. We did that in every aspect of the game tonight. ”
Goals from striker Zach Aston-Reese, his second at 18:57 from the third, and Sidney Crosby, his fifth at 19:11, secured the win and helped Jarry skid in three lost games.
“Hopefully, Tristan will gain some confidence from this,” said Sullivan. “He certainly should.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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