The Penguins earned their third straight win on Thursday night, topping St. Louis 5-3 at PPG Paints Arena.
Tristan Jarry has been in net for all of those victories, continuing his stellar play since returning from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Connor Timmins and Conor Dewar, two new faces acquired from Toronto at the trade deadline, recorded their first goals as Penguins in the game. Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust and Ryan Graves also scored for Pittsburgh.
“Winning three games for us, it definitely helps us have a good mood around the locker room and on the ice,” Rakell said. “Just got to keep it up."
The Penguins struck first as Graves collected a pass from Blake Lizotte and let a shot fly from the blue line, putting the Penguins up 1-0 just 2:17 into regulation with his first of the season.
“It’s nice. They didn’t sign me to score goals, but it’s nice when it happens,” said Graves, a steady defensive defenseman who prioritizes that side of the game. “It’s just nice when one goes in, you can chip in, it’s the first one of the game.”
The Blues responded with a vengeance, recording the next 10 shots of the night. They ended up outshooting Pittsburgh 16-5, but Jarry was up for the challenge, keeping St. Louis off the scoreboard.
“We weren’t good enough in the first period,” Rakell said. “He definitely kept us in the game. He had a really strong game for a full 60 minutes. Really nice to see him play well.”
The Penguins truly cannot say enough about how Jarry has responded since coming back to Pittsburgh after being placed on waivers and spending time in the minors, as he struggled to find consistency in the first three-plus months of the year.
“Without a doubt, the last three games are three of the best games Jars has played all year for us,” Mike Sullivan said. “He’s just ultra-competitive in there. He’s battling on pucks, and at the end of the day, when we look at our last three games, he’s the main difference in all three of them.”
Building off the momentum of good goaltending and an early lead, the Penguins started the second period strong, celebrating another first just 2:20 into the period. Timmins fired one in to give his team a 2-0 lead.
“It was really cool. This building was alive all night, so to get in front of these fans was great,” Timmins said. “And more importantly, the team got the win. So, that was great.”
Later in the period, St. Louis converted a power play to get within one. However, the Penguins went back up by two goals after Lizotte put a pass right on Dewar’s stick for a re-direct goal with 2:18 left to play in the second period.
“Connor Dewar brings a ton of energy,” Sullivan said. “He has a hardness to his game, an honesty to his game, and he competes hard.”
In the third period, Rust scored his 22nd goal of the season, putting the Penguins up 4-2 just 7:15 into the period. Sidney Crosby got an assist (one of two on the night) to extend his home point streak to nine games (5G-9A-14PTS), which is the fourth-longest active point streak in the league.
With eight seconds remaining, Rakell iced the win with an empty-netter, earning his 30th goal of the season. It’s the third time in his career reaching that mark and first time as a Penguin, becoming just the seventh player in the Crosby-Malkin era (since 2006-07) to score 30.
“It's a great feeling. I love scoring goals,” Rakell said. “Especially with the win tonight, it feels extra good.”
Sullivan and the players have acknowledged this is a difficult situation, with the Penguins likely to miss the playoffs for a third straight season. But there’s a certain standard in this organization, built by Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, and the team is doing its best to uphold it.
“Our leaders in this room lead the way. It doesn’t work here to just not go all the way and just play hard until the finish line,” Rakell said.
