Jarry Pitches Shutout in Penguins’ Win Over the Sharks

The Pittsburgh Penguins closed out their California road trip with a meeting against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night (Oct. 18). The Sharks (0-3-2) suffered their second loss in as many nights, falling 3-0 to the Penguins (4-2-0). Pittsburgh finished its road trip with a 2-1-0 record.

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Tristan Jarry played lights out to pick up the 22nd shutout of his career, making 30 saves in the win. Despite putting up an incredible performance between the pipes, Alex Nedeljkovic picked up the loss, making 24 saves on 26 shots.

Game Recap

While the offense was going for both teams, the goaltenders stole the show. After fending off a ton of pressure from the Penguins in their own zone in the first four minutes, San Jose’s William Eklund found the puck and skated it down the other way. He forced Jarry to make two stellar saves in a high-danger area to keep it a scoreless game. With 9:39 to go, Nedeljkovic came up with three key saves with the right pad on Ben Kindel to keep the game deadlocked. Neither team found the back of the net, despite the shots being 18-11 in favor of Pittsburgh.

In the second period, the game opened up more with both teams getting solid chances. The Penguins’ best chance through the first five minutes came off a scramble play around the net. The crossbar came into play, keeping it a scoreless game. Michael Misa came close to opening the scoring for the Sharks, but Jarry came up with a big left-pad save to keep the 18-year-old off the board. The game finally saw its first goal at 7:35. A Kris Letang shot from the blue line deflected off the stick of Sidney Crosby for his third of the season. The Sharks were unable to get the game level despite having an 11-4 shot advantage in the middle frame.

The Penguins extended their lead 7:02 into the third period. A beautiful passing play between Evgeni Malkin, Justin Brazeau, and Anthony Mantha ended with Mantha putting the puck under the crossbar for his second goal of the season. Just minutes later, the Sharks put on the pressure. Jarry came up with a big save to keep his shutout intact. With 21.8 seconds left and Nedeljkovic pulled, Malkin picked up his second point of the night with the empty-net goal to make it a 3-0 game and secure the Penguins’ second win on the road trip.

The Sharks and Penguins will be back in action Tuesday night (Oct. 21). The Sharks begin a four-game road trip on the East Coast, starting with the New York Islanders. The Penguins will be back on home ice to welcome the Vancouver Canucks to PPG Paints Arena.