Penguins end scoring droughts, run win streak to 4 in victory over Canucks

On the eve of a national holiday, Bryan Rust was feeling thankful.

He finally scored a goal during the Penguins’ 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.

But the Penguins forward’s gratitude over netting his first goal since the season opener was binary.

“First, of all, thanks to you guys (in the media) for not bringing it up before tonight,” Rust quipped. “Second of all, I’ve been there before. I’ve gone through streaks where I haven’t produced or I haven’t played well. You just got to kind of stick with the process. You’ve almost got to simplify and you’ve got to keep working. I tried to do that and I was rewarded with a goal tonight. You could tell by my celebration, it was a bit of a relief, for sure.”

He wasn’t the only one to feel some relief after a prolonged offensive drought. Forward Zach Aston-Reese scored his first goal of the season as the Penguins got offensive contribution from a variety of sources as they extended their season-best winning streak to four games.

While the score was a bit lopsided, the play on the ice was fairly level between the two squads. Shots were even at 37 apiece.

“The guys played with a lot of energy,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We weren’t as tight defensively as we’ve been. That’s something that I think we’ve got to take from this and just make sure we make better decisions with the puck (and) we don’t get into a chance-for-chance game. We had a number of high-quality chances, but I thought we gave up some too.”

Goaltender Tristan Jarry was there to turn away most of the Canucks’ salvos and improved his record to 9-4-3. Appearing in all four of the Penguins’ victories during their winning streak, Jarry has a 0.50 goals against average and a .983 save percentage during this stretch.

“Tristan was terrific again tonight,” Sullivan said. “We gave up a fair amount of high-quality chances. We got a fair amount ourselves. But I thought we gave up a fair amount, more than we prefer. And Tristan was there to make a lot of timely saves for us. He’s seeing it right now. He looks really comfortable in the net. His rebound control is really good. His handles have been more decisive and he’s making good decisions when he does handle the puck. He’s playing extremely well for us. That’s one of the reasons we’ve kind of (ridden) him the last stretch of games. He’s been playing extremely well.”

Following a scoreless first period, the Penguins claimed a lead 49 seconds into the middle frame with a power-play goal by Rust. Taking a pass low to the right of the Canucks’ cage, Penguins forward Jake Guentzel dished the puck to defenseman Kris Letang above the right circle. From there, Letang fed a quick pass to the left circle for Rust, who whipped a one-timer past goaltender Thatcher Demko’s blocker on the near side.

It was only the second goal of the season for Rust whose first score — on an empty net — came Oct. 12 during a season-opening 6-3 road win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Letang and Guentzel had assists.

The Penguins made it a 2-0 game at 7:29 of the second. After a poor turnover in his own zone by Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs, Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues settled the puck on the left wing wall. Facing minimal resistance, Rodrigues used Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers as a screen and sniped a pin-point wrister over Demko’s left shoulder on the far side for his seventh goal this season and the 100th point of his career. There were no assists.

It became a 3-0 contest at 15:20 of the second when Aston-Reese converted an odd-man rush.

After Penguins forward Teddy Blueger forced a turnover in the defensive zone, linemate Brock McGinn claimed the puck and pushed play up the right wing, creating a three-on-one rush. With Burroughs the lone skater back for his team, McGinn and Aston-Reese dealt the puck back and forth a handful of times before Aston-Reese lifted a wrister from the left circle over Demko’s blocker on the near side. Assists went to McGinn and Blueger.

Aston-Reese’s previous goal came May 22 in Game 4 of a first-round postseason series against the New York Islanders, a 4-1 road loss.

“It felt really good,” Aston-Reese said. “Kind of seemed like nobody really wanted the puck. Guys were joking about it. But (McGinn) made a nice play. … Happy to get the first one out of the way and hopefully a lot more to come.”

The Canucks broke up the shutout bid at 14:52 of the third period. Driving up the left wing of the offensive zone, forward Bo Horvat surged past Letang and attacked the net, putting a backhander off the far post and into the cage for his sixth goal. The lone assist went to defenseman Luke Schenn.

McGinn capped the scoring by chipping a shot from the neutral zone for an empty netter at 19:00 of the third. It was his fifth goal off assists from Blueger and defenseman Marcus Pettersson.

After a day off Thursday for Thanksgiving, the Penguins will face the Islanders on Friday at the new UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. with the entitled confidence that comes via a winning streak.

As for Aston-Reese and Rust, they’re thankful for an opportunity to finally start a scoring streak.

“When it’s not there, you’ve got to be able to do other things,” Aston-Reese said. “Myself, Bryan, I think we can both do that pretty well. But once you get that first one or you get a few, it’s a mindset and you start feeling good going into every game that when you get a chance, there’s a pretty good probability that you’re going to bury it.”