North Delta’s Tristan Jarry has a hot hand as starting goaltender for the Pittsburgh Penguins as the team prepares to battle the Canucks here on Saturday night (Dec. 21).
If he gets the start in Vancouver, the game would be a triumphant homecoming for Jarry, who has 10 wins and five losses in 15 games this NHL season, and a sizzling .940 save percentage.
Last week, Jarry had a franchise-record shutout streak ended at 177:15 minutes in a loss to Montreal, but rebounded the next game to earn his third shutout in four games.
“It’s fun,” Jarry said after the Dec. 12 win over Columbus, in a story posted to nhl.com.
“It’s fun to play a lot and it’s fun to win.”
The Surrey-born Jarry, 24, was selected by the Penguins in the second round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. In recent seasons, he has split his time between the NHL club and its AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Now, he’s earned the starting role in goal for the Penguins, who are playing without injured star forward Sidney Crosby at the moment.
Winners of three in a row, the Penguins play in Edmonton tonight (Friday) before their game at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Saturday.
Years ago in North Delta, Jarry was in the French-immersion program at Devon Gardens Elementary. Later, he was schooled at Burnsview Secondary before switching to Delta Hockey Academy and studies in South Delta. After that, he played four seasons with Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL.
• RELATED STORY, from August 2016: Penguins prospect Tristan Jarry trains at Planet Ice in Delta.
In November 2017, Jarry became the Penguins’ starter for the first time, after Matt Murray went down with a leg injury in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
A year later, on Nov. 14, 2018, Jarry made history by scoring a goal into an empty net for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL team’s 5-1 win over Springfield Thunderbirds.
“Jarry became the first goaltender in Penguins history, and the 14th in AHL history, to record a goal,” said a post on the team’s Youtube channel.
The goal is shown in video below.
The Penguins’ former starting goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, was in net for Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday (Dec. 19) at Rogers Arena when the Canucks beat the visitors 5-4 in overtime, on a winner scored by Chris Tanev.
Elias Pettersson scored twice for the Canucks (17-15-4), and Antoine Roussel and Tanner Pearson had the other goals.
The win was Vancouver’s second in 10 games against the Golden Knights since Vegas joined the league in 2017-18. The Canucks are 2-7-1 against Vegas over that span.
with a file from the Canadian Press
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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