Goaltender Tristan Jarry stopped all 23 shots he faced Tuesday for his league-leading sixth shutout as the Pittsburgh Penguins topped the visiting Winnipeg Jets 3-0.
It was Jarry’s 19th career shutout and his second against Winnipeg.
Kris Letang, Jeff Carter and Bryan Rust scored for the Penguins, who have won two in a row. The Penguins’ Mike Sullivan coached his 800th career game.
Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves in the Jets’ fourth straight loss (0-3-1).
Letang gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 7:16 of the first. He picked up Josh Morrissey’s attempted clearing pass, weaved down the slot, avoided the Jets’ Adam Lowry, went to the backhand and let loose a shot that beat Hellebuyck glove side.
The first penalty of the game, at 4:15 of the second, was significant. Pittsburgh’s Noel Acciari was carrying the puck along the left-wing boards when he absorbed a big hit by Winnipeg’s Brenden Dillon, whose shoulder caught Acciari up high, sending his helmet flying and knocking him to the ice.
Acciari was helped to the dressing room, not to return, and Dillon was tossed from the game on a match penalty for an illegal hit to the head. Dillon could face supplemental discipline from the NHL.
The Penguins cashed in twice on their resulting five-minute power play.
Carter made it 2-0 at 7:33. Erik Karlsson took a shot from the center point. Lars Eller, in the slot, tipped it. The puck bounced off the lower leg of the Jets’ Nate Schmidt, and Carter swiped it inside the right post.
Rust increased it to 3-0 at 9:03. Sidney Crosby partially whiffed on a one-timer. Jake Guentzel, playing in his 500th game, got to the puck as it went wide of the net and tapped it toward the crease, where Rust banged it in.
Pittsburgh had gone 1-for-24 on the power play in its previous seven games.
Winnipeg leading scorer Mark Scheifele, returning from a six-game injury absence, one-timed a puck past Jarry at 6:44 of the third, but the Penguins successfully challenged that the Jets were offside.
–Field Level Media
