Goaltender Tristan Jarry leads Penguins past Capitals

Just looking at the basic numbers, Tristan Jarry was hardly outstanding Sunday.

He was nothing close to the All-Star he was for most of the 2019-20 season.

There hasn’t been a point in the 2020-21 season in which he has been in that zip code.

But he was better Sunday than he has been through the first month of this campaign.

Making 28 saves on 31 shots, the Penguins’ top goaltender fended off a stiff challenge from the Washington Capitals and claim a 6-3 victory at PPG Paints Arena.

Jarry’s final period might have been his most impactful of the season. He only faced eight shots in the final 20 minutes of regulation — the Penguins actually controlled play for most of the third with 17 shots — but a number of Jarry’s stops were high quality coming off odd-man rushes and in areas in and around his crease.

And they came with the Penguins defending a one-goal lead for most of the period.

First came a stop of ex-Penguins forward Conor Sheary on a two-on-one rush only 53 seconds into the period. That was followed by a wrister from Capitals forward Richard Panik at the 3:20 mark. And perhaps most impressively, a denial of Capitals defenseman John Carlson on a rocket of a slapper from the right circle at 11:29 despite being knocked to the ice twice by teammate P.O Joseph.

Jarry was hardly perfect, but he made — to borrow a Mike Sullivan-ism — timely saves.

“He made some good saves for us at key times,” the Penguins coach said via video conference. “That’s what you need from your goaltender in order to win games and have success in this league. Tristan took a big step tonight. He made some big saves for us. I thought we defended hard in front of him. But certainly, when we broke down, he was there to make the big stops.”

Things broke down early as Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his second goal of the season on a power play 5:18 into regulation.

But the Penguins responded when forward Bryan Rust scored his fourth goal at 10:29 of the first. That was followed by Penguins forward Brandon Tanev collecting his fourth goal only 32 seconds later.

Only 3:26 into the second period, Capitals forward Jakub Vrana scored his fourth goal on a rebound.

The Penguins got something of a rarity at 6:44 of the second period when Rust scored on a power play. It was the first such goal the Penguins scored in seven games and snapped an 0-for-21 skid with the man advantage.

“We’ve just kind of gotten back to basics,” Rust said of his team’s efforts to correct the power play. “Just trying to feed off of each other. Not trying to think too much and just trying to get pucks on net.”

They got something even rarer exactly four minutes later when they took their first two-goal lead of the season thanks to a score by forward Jake Guentzel, his fifth.

“It’s definitely nice to have a little bit of a cushion,” Rust said. “Obviously, you don’t want to kind of sit back and be content and let the other team climb back. But it was definitely nice to see our efforts get rewarded.”

A backhand goal by Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom, his seventh, cut the lead to one late in the second at the 17:49 mark

But that was the final offense the visitors would enjoy thanks to some stout puck possession by the hosts.

“I thought we played pretty well five-on-five,” Penguins defenseman Cody Ceci said. “They’re a big, strong team and we tried to match that. We got it done in all aspects of the game tonight.”

Empty-net goals by forward Zach Aston-Reese, his second at 18:57 of the third, and Sidney Crosby, his fifth at the 19:11 mark, secured victory and helped Jarry snap a personal three-game losing skid.

“Hopefully, Tristan will gain some confidence off of this,” Sullivan said. “He certainly should.”