Tristan Jarry has Penguins’ support
It was quite the regular season for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ who managed to put the disappointment of being eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens inside the NHL-bubble in Toronto last summer behind them. They were able to top the difficult East Division with 77 points from 56 games.
Despite their incredible run during the regular season though, the Penguins find themselves on the brink of elimination in the opening round of the NHL playoffs. After losing the first game of the best-of-seven series against the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh managed to quickly climb back by winning games two and three. However, they lost game four on the road and fell short in double-overtime on Monday evening in game five.
The Penguins were up 2-1 after the second period at PPG Paints Arena, but the Islanders managed to tie the game in the third period to send it to overtime. It was in double-overtime though where Pittsburgh’s goaltender Tristan Jarry made a terrible up-ice pass that went straight to New York forward Josh Bailey. The Islander made no mistake and gave his team the 3-2 victory and 3-2 series lead.
“At first, I was just trying to settle it down and wanted to get a good shot off and then I kind of ran out of time and let it go,” Bailey told reporters following his game-winning goal, via USA Today.
Although Jarry made a costly error at the worst possible time, his teammates were quick to jump to his defense following the contest as they look ahead to game six in New York.
“It’s a team game,” Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang said to the media, via USA Today. “It’s nobody’s fault. We win as a team. We lose as a team. We’re going to shake it off and he’s going to bring his A game like we did tonight, and we’ll go in there and try to win that game.”
Islanders’ goaltender Ilya Sorokin was the busier of the two goalies on the night, as he was forced to make a total of 48 saves to ensure his team left with the victory. Jarry made 26 saves on Monday night, including a crucial save on Jordan Eberle in the first period. A fact that was not lost on his head coach Mike Sullivan.
“We’ll rally around him,” Sullivan said to members of the media. “He’s been a really good goalie for us all year long. He’ll continue to be a good goalie for us as we move forward.”
Jarry started in 38 games during the regular season for the Penguins, winning 25 of them and posting a 2.75 GAA and a .909 SV%. He has started all five playoff games for Pittsburgh so far this season.
While they find themselves just one win away from the second-round of the playoffs, the Islanders know they’ve still got quite a bit of work to do before they can say good-bye to their rivals.
“Nothing’s easy in this league, it’s hard, and this is a hard division,” said New York head coach Barry Trotz. “This is a very good hockey team that we’re playing. It’s gonna take every ounce we have of everything we have to win this.”
