93.7 The Fan (PITTSBURGH) - Tristan Jarry slams the door on the Sabres recording his third shutout of the season, as the Penguins win their 4th straight game in a 4-0 victory Saturday night.
It started with a work of magic that only Evgeni Malkin could have pulled off. Ryan Graves fired a slap shot from just in front of the blue line and the puck went wide of the net off the boards and into the corner. Malkin was right there where the puck landed and back handed a pass towards the net and it went off the back of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen's goalie mask into the net.
Late in the second period, Buffalo was on the attack and Owen Power shot a back-hander that was deflected wide. The puck went into the corner and Lars Eller found Drew O'Connor on the rush at center ice. O'Connor fired a wrist shot off Luukkonen and it trickled in for his first goal of the season, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead after two periods.
"Yeah it's always nice to get the first one of the year," said O'Connor. "The longer you go, the more the pressure kind of builds up so it feels good to get that one."
The Pens carried over a power play from the end of the second period into the start of the third, and took full advantage of the man advantage. Eric Karlsson fired a shot from the blue line and it deflected off Erik Johnson's stick redirecting the puck into the net to make it 3-0 Pittsburgh. Karlsson added one more in the final two minutes of the game on an empty netter to give the Pens the 4-0 win.
Mike Sullivan credits the recent success the team has had to playing less high-risk, high-reward hockey.
"I think it's essential," said Sullivan. "We've talked a lot about cutting risk out of our game. It's hard to win consistently in this league if you're a high-risk high-reward team, it just is. There's such an element of chance, you've got to take care of the puck and I think it's an important aspect of winning consistently in this league."
Tristan Jarry returned from his injury he suffered against the Anaheim Ducks November 2nd and didn't skip a beat. Jarry made 35 saves and recorded his third shutout on the season. He is the first goalie to have three shutouts in the 2023 season.
Two weeks ago Jarry told the media he needs to better. He now has three wins since then. He credits it to always continuing to work hard.
"Hard work was going to get me out of it," said Jarry. "That's honestly what I've done the last two weeks. Not stop, not stop working hard and I think that's the best thing you can do to show the guys that you're working, you're committed. I think it's been like that for all 23 of us. We're all working hard and we're all getting the best out of our games."