Sully Says: "Funny Way to Score, But A Goal is a Goal"

The Penguins started off their two-game road trip with a win in Florida on Thursday. Pittsburgh's 4-2 victory over the Panthers was their seventh straight win, and sixth straight road win. Dating back to Nov. 9, the Penguins have points in 16 of their last 18 games, going 14-2-2 over that span.

"I think the guys are playing hard," Tristan Jarry said. "I think the goals are coming for us. They're working hard in the D zone, and they're getting rewarded in the offensive zone. They're going to the net hard. I think that's been the difference these last couple of games. We're getting a lot of blue paint goals, and it's helping us tremendously."
The play of the Penguins netminder has also been a huge reason for the team's run. Jarry made 32 saves to extend his career-long point streak to 12 games (10-0-2). The last Pittsburgh goaltender to record a longer point streak was Marc-Andre Fleury in 2010-11 (14 GP, 13-0-1).
"He's been unbelievable for us," Jake Guentzel said. "Brings it each and every night. It's really nice to see how he's playing, and we're lucky to have him."
The Panthers opened the scoring 5:30 into play with a goal from Ryan Lomberg, and from there, Jarry shut the door the rest of the way. He was terrific in this game, coming up with some really high-quality saves to bail his team out of some lackluster stretches.
The Penguins dominated the special teams battle in the middle frame to take a 2-1 lead. Kris Letang was able to finish off a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush with a slick pass from Bryan Rust, and a few minutes later, Guentzel used his skate to deflect a shot from Evgeni Malkin on the power play."In Buffalo last week, I went down on one knee (to make a play on the back door), and Geno just told me to use my skates," Guentzel said. "So credit goes to him. He made a good play, and I was just trying to get something on it."
The Penguins took a 3-1 lead in the third period with another power-play goal, but it came at a cost. Sidney Crosby's shot caught Malkin right above the shinpad before deflecting into the net. Malkin immediately went down in a lot of pain, and had to be helped off the ice after head athletic trainer Chris Stewart came out to check on him.
"It happens. It sucks," Letang said with a wry grin. "It's like, you get it there and your leg goes dead. Can't really stand on it. It's a tough spot. But he'll be okay. He's tough."
"You never like seeing that," Crosby said. "He looked like he was in a lot of pain. We've done it [caught each other with pucks] a couple times over the years. You don't like doing that. "Hopefully it's nothing that's going to keep him out, but if you're going to get hit, it's nice to get a goal out of it."
Malkin was walking around with an ice bag on his knee after the game, and Sullivan said the preliminary prognosis is positive, which is a good sign.
"We will see how he is tomorrow," Sullivan said. "Funny way to score, but a goal is a goal."
The Panthers responded just over two minutes later to cut the deficit to one, but Guentzel got his second of the night - an empty-netter - to seal the win with 1:18 left in regulation. Here's what Sullivan had to say after the game.
On Letang's play since returning to the lineup following the second stroke of his career:"He's picked up where he left off. I think he's been pretty solid. He's keeping the game simple. He just has the ability to log so many minutes, night in and night out. It's such an important aspect of his game, of our game. We rely on him in so many situations. I think, since he's been back just the simplicity in his game has been really effective. He's moving the puck. He's not trying to do too much. He's getting involved in the offense. I thought he made a great play jumping in the rush there on the penalty kill when he scored. He just helps us in so many ways, but I think he's been really solid."
On if Jarry's second-period play was the best of his career: "I don't know about that. You know, he made some good saves. I think, when you look at the way the game was played tonight, it was a very different than the last game we played. It just seemed that it was loose on both sides. It was some quality looks on both sides. We'd obviously like to be better at eliminating some of those. That was my observation coming off the bench."
On if Jarry is playing at a level where they expect good play from him every night: "Yeah. We expect it because he's capable. He's a real good goalie, and we've always believed that. He's capable of playing at a real high level, and he's playing at a high level right now. He's been consistent as well. When you look at him from the start of training camp, his game has been building. It's been growing and getting better by the day. That's such an important aspect of winning. He's been a big part of the success we've enjoyed as of late. You look at even something as a microcosm of the game, just the penalty kill - he's a big part of the penalty kill. A lot of times ,when your penalty kill's going well, your best penalty kill guy is your goalie, because he means he's going to have to make some saves. And he's doing that for us, both 5-on-5 and on the penalty kill. That's what he's capable of."
On seeing Guentzel get rewarded on the power play, especially since it seemed like he took a beating tonight (and on a lot of nights): "Yeah, he does. He's just brave. He plays the game so hard. He goes to the dirty areas where you take cross checks and face washes to try to score. The power-play goal he scored tonight is an example. He's in the blue paint. I think that's one of the things we admire about his game, is just how courageous he is. He's not an overly big guy, and he's willing to go to the hard areas - undeterred - to score goals. So I think for him to get rewarded tonight, we're thrilled for him, we're thrilled for us as a team."