Tristan Jarry gets first NHL win since Dec. 23 as Penguins beat Marc-Andre Fleury and the Wild

Matt Vensel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Mar 9, 2025

Published in Hockey

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — All eyes were on the goalies Sunday afternoon in Minnesota.

In one net was Marc-Andre Fleury, playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final time.

In the other was Tristan Jarry, who was making his first NHL start since Jan. 14.

In a bit of a surprise, it was Jarry and the Penguins who skated away with the victory. They ended their road trip with a 3-1 win against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

The first period at Xcel Energy Center was a snooze-fest, with players on both teams looking very much like they’d lost an hour of sleep due to daylight saving time. And there wasn’t much flow in the second period with a total of four power plays.

The turning point came midway through that period when the Penguins killed Vladislav Kolyachonok’s double minor. Jarry was tested just twice on those power plays.

A few minutes later, Evgeni Malkin got the game’s first goal late in a Penguins power play. Malkin got bowled over by Jake Middleton behind the net, picked himself up and scored on his second whack on the doorstep, much to the chagrin of Fleury.

That was the only power-play goal the Penguins tallied on the three-game road trip.

The Wild pushed for the equalizer early in the third period, but Jarry held them off.

Then captain Sidney Crosby made it 2-0 on a rebound try that fluttered past Fleury.

That would be enough goal support for Jarry. Per usual, it was rarely pretty with him. But Jarry got the job done Sunday, helping the Penguins snap a four-game skid.

In the early going, Jarry stuffed Matthew Boldy, who was all alone in tight. Later in the first period, he turned aside Brock Faber on another point-blank scoring chance.

He made another 10 saves during the second then watched Pittsburgh pull ahead.

Ryan Hartman scored on an odd-man rush with 5:06 left to snap his shutout bid. But Jarry still got his first win since Dec. 23. He finished with 30 saves in the game. He added an assist, too, on Crosby’s empty-net goal with 1:13 left in the game.

That empty-netter gave Crosby his first multi-goal game since early November.

Around the boards

— Conor Timmins and Connor Dewar, who on Friday were acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, made their Penguins debuts here. Timmins played on their third defensive pair and Dewar was deployed as the left wing on their third line.

— The Penguins have now used 40 players this season, their most since 2005-06.

— Tommy Novak skated on Malkin’s left wing throughout his second game. He was their third-line center in his Penguins debut, a 4-0 loss Friday in Las Vegas.

— Crosby now has 20 goals on the season. He’s hit that mark 17 times in his career.

— The Penguins were a perfect 6 for 6 on the penalty kill. That unit killed three penalties in the second period, including the Kolyachonok double minor while it was 0-0.

— This was career start No. 1,015 for Fleury, moving him past Roberto Luongo for the second most all-time. Only Martin Brodeur, with 1,251, has started more games.

— Ryan Graves and Danton Heinen were the team’s healthy scratches on Sunday.

Coming up next

The Penguins flew home after Sunday’s game and will have the day off Monday after a week-long road trip. They are back on the ice Tuesday, playing host to Vegas.

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