Penguins sweep Capitals with shutout, take lead in East Division

WASHINGTON-- Tristan Jarry made 24 saves for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-0 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Saturday.

Bryan Rust scored two goals, giving him 100 in the NHL, and Jeff Carter scored for the Penguins (34-15-3), who have won six of seven and lead the MassMutual East Division by two points over the Capitals, who have a game in hand.
The Penguins defeated the Capitals 5-4 in overtime on Thursday and were 6-2-0 against Washington this season, with three wins in overtime and one in a shootout.
"They're a divisional team, and it was our last two games against them this year, so I think we just wanted to leave our mark and try to do the best we can and just try and get wins," Jarry said. "It's that time of year that we're at, just trying to rack up as many wins as possible and put ourselves in a good spot."
Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves for the Capitals (32-14-5), who played a fourth straight game without forward Alex Ovechkin.
"I think they all played out the same. Almost every game was identical," Washington coach Peter Laviolette said of the series against Pittsburgh. "The team that capitalized won the game. Tonight ... it was definitely not volume. It was a couple things that happened and they got a couple really good looks and they put it in."
Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead when Washington forward Garnet Hathaway fell, resulting in a breakaway for Rust, who scored on a wrist shot from the left circle at 2:56.

Rust made it 2-0 when he beat two Capitals to a loose puck, came in alone, faked left and went right while sliding the puck past Samsonov 26 seconds into the second period.
The 28-year-old forward has scored 22 goals this season; he has played 360 NHL games.
"I just think he's really turned himself into a real impact player," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He understands how to play to his strengths. He's developed his offensive game I think as good as any young player that I've been around as a coach in 20-something years coaching in this league. I can't say enough about 'Rusty' and what he brings to this team."
Kris Letang's shot deflected off Carter's skate to increase the lead to 3-0 at 10:43.
Jarry got his second shutout in four games (1-0 against the Boston Bruins last Sunday).
"He was fantastic. There was a whole lot of chances that we gave up there in the second period, and he was unbelievable diving around making great saves," Rust said. "He's just calm, cool and confident in there right now, and I think that just kind of flows through the lineup anytime your goalie's making saves like that and he's feeling confident."

Washington was outshot 11-5 in the third period.
"You're going to have games like this, but even if they won 3-0 I don't think we played that bad," Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom said. "We should have probably scored on our chances in the second there. It would have been a different game. In the third, felt like we couldn't get anything going there."
Ovechkin has not played since April 22 because of a lower-body injury. It is his longest absence since Nov. 4-14, 2009, when he missed an NHL career-high six games with a shoulder injury.
NOTES: Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin (lower body) missed his 23rd game. Pittsburgh is 16-5-2 without him. ... Sullivan did not have a postgame update on defenseman Mike Matheson, who left the game in the second period after getting hit in the face with the puck. ... Penguins forward Brandon Tanev (lower body) missed his 13th game. ... Capitals defenseman John Carlson (lower body) missed his second game. ... Samsonov had won four straight games.