PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Dylan Ferguson spent time in the ECHL over the last couple of years and Monday made his first NHL start in Pittsburgh. The 24-year-old made 47 saves in a critical 2-1 Ottawa win over the Pens Monday night.
“Sometimes goalies steal games, it’s a tough one,” said Pens forward Jake Guentzel. “Obviously he played well. Sometimes it’s going to be like that.”
“It’s tough,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby. “We had the chances. He made some saves. We didn’t execute on a few. The power play came up short. It’s tough, you want to find a way to win those.”
Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said they could have had a little more traffic in front of the net and made it harder for Ferguson, who is the sixth different starting goalie for the Sens this year and ninth different overall. Sullivan felt they were better at it as the game went on, but it just didn’t go in.
“We were attacking the net and trying to get pucks there and trying to get people in front,” said Pens forward Rickard Rakell, who had the lone Pens goal to tie it with 5:21 left in the third period. “We just have to find a way to get those rebounds that are laying there and we’ll be more successful.”
“For whatever reason the last couple of nights it’s been a struggle to score,” Sullivan said. “I thought tonight we had an awful lot of looks, high quality looks and the puck didn’t go in for us.”
“These guys care, they want to win. They are trying. We just got to find a way to control our emotions and keep grinding away.”
“I thought we played well enough to win tonight, we didn’t. Sometimes that happens. If we can continue to play that way and get the type of looks we got tonight, I think we will get the results moving forward.”
“We generated a lot of offense tonight, sometimes the puck doesn’t want to go in,” said defenseman PO Joseph. “We moved the puck well. We had a decent amount of shots. Jarry played an unbelievable game again tonight. Those are the key points we have to keep in our back pocket and bring on the road.”
“If we play like that we will win a lot of games,” Guentzel said. “Disappointed we didn’t get the win, but can take some positives from it.”
Game winner
Ottawa gets the game-winner on the power play just minutes after the Pens tied the game. Drake Batherson in front of the net as the pass from Brady Tkachuk got through Brian Dumoulin after Bryan Rust couldn’t clear it.
“Rusty makes a great block and obviously they are able to open us up a little bit after that,” said Pens goalie Tristan Jarry who made 19 saves. “It’s tough. Rusty is hurting a little bit and they are able to work it around him. They were able to get a good tip, right in front of the net.”
Jarry said he knew the puck went off of both posts and didn’t want to move as to not knock it in with his legs. Rust took it hard and blamed himself for not finding a way to clear it. Jarry said it’s tough after you get hit with the puck to regroup and find yourself.
“I thought he was really good tonight,” Sullivan said of Jarry. “The breakaway save was a real good save. He made a couple of good saves on the penalty kill right before their goal. I thought he looked sharper in the net tonight. His movement, posture and tracking pucks. Some of the subtleties of his game, I thought they were much better.”
Updated Wild Card standings
Islanders-71 games 80 points
Florida-70 games 79 points
Pens-70 games 78 points
Ottawa-70 games 73 points
Washington-71 games 73 points
Buffalo-69 games 72 points
Up Next
Pens are on the road for a pair, at Colorado Wednesday at 8p and at Dallas Thursday at 9p before returning home to host Washington Saturday night at 8p.