PITTSBURGH — There were no signs of rust, no softies let in or questionable plays with the puck behind the net.
Tristan Jarry, in his return, was quite simply, stellar.
On a night where offense was at less than a premium, the Penguins prevailed, 2-0, against the Nashville Predators Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, courtesy of some exceptional netminding. Jason Zucker provided all the offense that Jarry, who produced a 27-save shutout, needed on a late-second period goal.
Jarry, who made his first start since Mar. 22 after giving way to Casey DeSmith for the Penguins’ last three games, was sharp from the opening puck drop. He made the routine saves, seeming to move laterally with ease roughly a week removed from suffering an lower-body injury.
Jarry came through when the Penguins spent four first-period minutes on the penalty kill, turning away four shots in the process. He was similarly up to the task on a second-period breakaway, bailing out Pierre-Olivier Joseph after a miscue by the young defenseman.
Joseph tried to catch a Nashville clear and bat the puck down to his stick, but the Predators' Kiefer Sherwood snatched up the loose disc and fired on Jarry. The Penguins’ netminder stonewalled Sherwood with his left pad, kicking aside the Predators’ only serious threat through 40 minutes.
Nashville put Jarry in a bind once more halfway through the third when Philip Tomasino had a breakaway after another Penguins defensive mistake. Jarry’s left pad didn’t fail him on this attempt either, nor did he come off his line too soon to make the save. The victim of boos at times during a troublesome 2023 due to injuries and inconsistent play, Jarry’s stop nearly kickstarted chants of his name to break out from the home crowd.
The Penguins’ offense finally gave Jarry the slightest cushion when Zucker tapped in a Brian Dumoulin pass that was made possible by some Evgeni Malkin wizardry. Malkin reared back like he was going to rip a slap shot on Nashville netminder Juuse Saros from the right faceoff dot.
But Malkin instead dished to a streaking Dumoulin in the middle of the ice, faking a number of Nashville players out of their skates in the process. Dumoulin hung on for just long enough, deked Nashville’s Kevin Gravel and found Zucker at the Predators’ doorstep to light the lamp.
Jake Guentzel took advantage of a third-period Penguins power-play just eight seconds after Nashville’s Cal Foote headed off for roughing Danton Heinen, tipping in a Rickard Rakell pass to provide Jarry with some more wiggle room down the stretch.
Jarry needed no such luxury, though, blanking the Predators to keep the Penguins up a point on the Florida Panthers, who beat the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night, for the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot with a game in hand.
ICE CHIPS
— Some positive injury news for a change regarding the Penguins’ injured defensemen: Marcus Pettersson, Jan Rutta and Dmitry Kulikov all got out on the ice Thursday morning before the team’s morning skate, per coach Mike Sullivan. Pettersson and Kulikov are each still on long-term injured reserve.
— By not starting on Thursday, DeSmith finished the month of March with a 3-4 record and 2.94 goals against average, appearing in eight contests and starting for seven of them.
— Mikael Granlund, who was acquired from the Predators just prior to the NHL’s trade deadline, skated in his first game against his former team as a member of the Penguins. He has a goal and two assists in 14 games for the Penguins this season.
— With his secondary assist on Zucker’s goal, Malkin has now recorded points in 10 straight home games dating back to Feb. 23.
— Guentzel’s power-play goal marked the third straight game he has scored. He has a team-leading 34 goals this season.
— The Penguins’ penalty kill reversed course after a troublesome showing in Detroit in which they gave up two goals on three opportunities. The Predators, whose power-play unit ranked 27th in the league coming into Thursday night, went 0 for 3.
STAT N’AT
— 200 — Jarry’s start in net marked his 200th appearance for the Penguins, the team he’s spent the entirety of his NHL career with. He is now one of five goalies in franchise history to play in at least 200 games for the Penguins.
COMING UP
The Penguins will hold practice Friday afternoon at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry before a jam-packed weekend on Fifth Avenue. They’ll host the Boston Bruins in a Saturday matinee showdown and the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday night for a 6 p.m. puck drop.
