*Photo from TSN*
A little bit of awesome history is just that, awesome. Jeff Carter scored, Tristan Jarry made history, and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 4-2 victory on Thursday in Tampa Bay.
Trailing 2-0 after one period, the Penguins went on to score 4 unanswered goals to take down the Lightning as they now sit at 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. The game was capped by a goal from Jarry, who scored the first goalie goal in Penguins history.
The Jarry goal was the 17th in league history and he became the 14th different goalie to score. Jarry previously scored in 2018 when he was playing with the AHL Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. Linus Ullmark in February was the last goalie to score in the league.
Jarry summed up the goal, saying that "It was kind of a perfect scenario. They dumped it right on net and I didn't even have to stop it. I just shot it right on the fly and it ended up going in."
It was the Lightning who took the lead first. Steven Stamkos made it a 1-0 game with his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman at the 9:06 mark of the period. At the 12:33 mark of the first, Tanner Jeannot scored on the power play, doubling the lead to 2-0 with Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev assisting.
Sidney Crosby and the Penguins started the comeback in the second period. Crosby scored his 14th goal of the season 8:53 into the second, making it a 2-1 game with the lone assist going to Jake Guentzel. With 36 seconds left in the period, Drew O'Connor tied the game for the Penguins on his second goal of the season.
Early in the 3rd period, the Penguins took the lead for good. Carter scored his first goal of the season to put the Penguins up 3-2, assisted by Marcus Pettersson and Matt Nieto 2:49 into the period. With 1:08 left on the clock, Jarry made Penguins history with the empty net goalie goal, sealing the 4-2 Penguins win.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said of the win that "This was a gutsy effort by the whole group. I thought our team competed hard. The pushback after the first period was terrific. We were proud of them. I thought we defended hard down the stretch. A lot of guys had really strong games for us."
Jarry picked up the win between the pipes for the Penguins, improving his record to 8-8-1 in 17 starts. He stopped 39 of the 41 shots on goal the Lightning sent his way, recording a .951 save percentage in the win.
Getting the start for the Lightning opposite Jarry was Andrei Vasilevskiy, who dropped to 1-2-0 in 3 starts since returning from injury. Vasilevskiy turned aside 25 out of 28 Pittsburgh shots, giving him a .893 save percentage.
Stamkos said of the team's 3rd straight loss that "I think it's just the same story over the last couple of games. We're playing some of the better hockey in spurts, but the mistakes that we're making are just tough ones that end up in the back of our net. That was probably the best hockey we played all year in the first period. Smothering them, skating, backchecking. It was the recipe. But then a couple of plays lead to chances for some really good players, and they make you pay."
The Penguins head home to face the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, with Jarry starting. The Lightning hit the road to take on the Dallas Stars on Saturday, with Vasilevskiy the projected starter.
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