Tristan Jarry was a few weeks shy of his 11th birthday when the Pittsburgh Penguins, led by a couple of teenagers named Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, made the playoffs in the spring of 2007.
That marked the first of 15 consecutive years in which the franchise qualified for the postseason, including this campaign.
Jarry, now 26, doesn’t have a great recollection as to what he was doing at that time.
“Watching them,” Jarry quipped. “I was still pretty young. I was just watching them on TV. Other than that, I don’t remember.”
That doesn’t mean the Penguins goaltender is ignorant as to what his team needs to do in the final week of the regular season.
“Obviously, it’s exciting for us to be in the playoffs again, to get a spot,” Jarry said via video conference. “Now, it’s just about getting the best position possible.”
The Penguins took a big stride towards accomplishing that on Saturday with a 3-0 road win against the rival Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena.
The victory pushed the Penguins into first place of the East Division with 71 points, and the Capitals sit in second with 69 points.
This success wasn’t unblemished, however. Defenseman Mike Matheson left the game at 16 minutes, 11 seconds of the second period after a clearing attempt by Jarry struck the left side of Matheson’s face. One of the Penguins’ most dynamic defensemen this season, Matheson left the ice with blood on his face. There was no immediate word on his status.
A pair of unassisted goals by Penguins forward Bryan Rust opened the scoring.
His first goal came only 2:56 into regulation. After Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway failed to keep a puck inside the Penguins blue line, Rust chased it down as it slid into Washington’s zone.
Claiming the puck in front of the home bench, Rust attacked the net and from the left circle, he snapped off a wrister that beat the underside of goaltender Ilya Samsonov’s glove on the far side for his 21st goal of the season.
Rust cashed in again 26 seconds into the second period. After Capitals forward Michael Raffl won a faceoff in the Penguins’ left circle against Crosby, Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov claimed the puck and attempted a slapper from center point. Rust challenged the shot and blocked it with his right leg, causing a rebound to deflect to the neutral zone. With Orlov late in reacting to the rebound, Rust surged past him and collected the puck and created his own breakaway from Washington’s blue line. Fending off Orlov, Rust deked forehand to backhand to forehand, juked Samsonov out of position and tucked in an easy shot.
The Penguins went up by a field goal at 10:43 of the second with a little bit of luck.
After Penguins forward Jeff Carter claimed a faceoff in the Capitals’ left circle against forward Nic Dowd, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang corralled the puck on the near wall, shielded it from Hathaway and whipped it toward the crease. Carter was battling for position to the right of the blue paint with Dowd and had the puck deflect off his right skate into the cage for his 12th goal of the season and fourth since joining the Penguins via trade April 12. Letang had the lone assist.
Jarry made 23 saves, recording his second shutout of the season and improving his record to 23-9-3.
Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@triblive.com or via Twitter .
