Penguins’ retooled power play leads to win against Jets after Noel Acciari’s injury

The Pittsburgh Penguins have altered, amended and augmented their woefully underwhelming power play in a multitude of ways this season.

On Tuesday, their latest revision appeared to aid that endeavor greatly during a 3-0 shutout of the Winnipeg Jets at PPG Paints Arena

Another thing that helped?

Getting five minutes to work with on the man advantage when a member of the opposition clobbers one of your players in the head.

After Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon – no stranger to maiming members of the Penguins – was given a match penalty at 4:15 of the second period for injuring Penguins forward Noel Acciari, the hosts utilized the ensuing extended power-play opportunity and scored twice, propelling themselves to an impressive victory against one of the better teams in the NHL.

Following the game, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan indicated Acciari was still being evaluated but noted “he seems to be doing OK.”

Racing into the offensive zone on the left wing, Acciari was struck by Dillon’s left shoulder at the Jets’ blue line, causing his helmet to deflect into the air and Acciari to tumble to the ice. As Penguins teammates confronted Dillon – who has injured or fought the likes of former Penguins forwards such as Teddy Blueger and Jason Zucker in recent years – Acciari struggled badly to recover to his skates. Team medical staffers attended to the veteran fourth-line center before he was escorted to the dressing room.

Brenden Dillon is assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head on Noel Acciari and is done for the night.

Following a review, the rugged defenseman was ultimately assessed a match penalty, an infraction that carries an automatic suspension pending review by the NHL.

Over the next five minutes of ice time, each of the Penguins’ two power-play units claimed a goal.

“Every time you see something like that happen, you want to respond,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. “You want to score. You want a couple of big goals for your teammate. You want to make them pay for the action they took on our player.”

As of late, the team has broken up its top players across each unit. Forward Sidney Crosby helms the top unit along with Letang and forwards Jake Guentzel, Reilly Smith and Bryan Rust. The second unit includes forwards Jeff Carter, Lars Eller, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell and defenseman Erik Karlsson.

Entering Tuesday, the Penguins were ranked 31st in the 32-team NHL with a success rate of 13.1% on the power play.

“We’re trying to create two units that we think can have success,” Sullivan said following a practice session in Cranberry on Monday. “We’ve gone a long time trying to ride a top unit and we just don’t feel as though we’ve had the success that meets our own expectation in our locker room. We feel change is necessary.”

Letang opened the scoring with an unassisted backhanded goal – his fourth of the season – 7:16 into regulation.

Off a dump-in by Penguins forward Jesse Puljujarvi, Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey claimed the puck off his own end boards and flicked a hard backhand pass to the right circle that Jets forward Adam Lowry was unable to accept cleanly. Settling the loose puck above the circle, Letang deked to his backhand, fended off Lowry and elevated a clever shot that eluded the glove of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck who was shifting to his right. There were no assists.

The Penguins’ third line — which includes Puljujarvi as well as Eller and Rakell — helped generate that turnover with an aggressive forecheck.

“Good play without the puck leads to offense,” Eller said. “A good forecheck forcing turnovers is very sustainable. It’s just about commitment and having guys in the right spots and moving your feet. Everybody can do it. It’s about being committed.”

The Penguins’ commitment to avenging Acciari via the power play was obvious as they made a pronounced effort to generate from around the crease, starting with Carter’s sixth goal at 7:33.

From the center point of the offensive zone, Karlsson snapped a wrister toward the cage which Eller, stationed in the slot, deflected with his stick. After the puck hit off of Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt’s left knee, Carter collected it above the crease and tucked a forehand shot under Hellebuyck’s left leg. Eller and Karlsson had assists.

Rust’s 12th goal also came from the blue paint’s gravitational field.

Off some perimeter passing, Crosby swiped a one-timer from above the Jets’ right circle but fanned on the shot, sending the puck fluttering to the far side of the net where Guentzel jabbed at it, essentially passing the puck to the right of the crease where Rust punched in a forehand shot. Guentzel and Crosby claimed assists.

“The goal initially was to put some pucks on net on the power play,” Rust said. “And we did. That was huge, got life for our team.”

Jets forward Mark Scheifele appeared to give his team a heartbeat with an apparent goal at at 6:44 of the third period, but the Penguins issued a coach’s challenge claiming the sequence to be offside. A brief review confirmed that accusation and restored a zero on the right side of the scoreboard.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry’s record was elevated to 14-14-4 after he made 25 saves in his league-best sixth shutout of the season.

Jarry largely deflected praise to the defenders in front of him.

“They played awesome,” Jarry said. “They were blocking shots. Guys were getting back. When we’re (conscientious) with the puck, we play a really good game. It’s hard to get some offense against. The guys did a great job defending in front of our net.

“And obviously we were able to get a couple of power-play goals. That always helps.”

That help was created out of change.

“We have so many capable players that can play on a lot of top units everywhere in the league,” Letang said. “It’s just a question of finding some chemistry. Maybe going back to playing a little bit simple, shooting more pucks.

“We spread the wealth and got rewarded.”

Notes:

• Jarry’s six shutouts are tied for the third-highest single-season total in franchise history.

1. Marc-Andre Fleury – 10 (2014-15)

2. Tom Barrasso – 7 (1997-98)

3. Les Binkley – 6 (1967-68)

Johan Hedberg – 6 (2001-02)

Tristan Jarry – 6 (2023-24)

• The Penguins’ most recent shutout of the Jets was also a 3-0 win on the road on Nov. 19, 2022. Jarry made 32 saves in that victory.

• Pulujuarvi made his Penguins debut after signing with the club on Sunday. He logged 9:41 of ice time on 13 shifts and had two shots on three attempts.

• Puljujarvi became the 31st player in franchise history to wear No. 18 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

George Konik, Wally Boyer, Lowell MacDonald, Ross Lonsberry, Kevin McClelland, Tom Roulston, Craig Simpson, Jimmy Mann, Mark Recchi, Richard Zemlak, Jeff Daniels, Ken Priestlay, Francois Leroux, Garry Valk, Patrick Lebeau, Ryan Savoia, Josef Beranek, Shean Donovan, Steve Webb, Eric Boguniecki, Dominic Moore, Adam Hall, Marian Hossa, Chris Conner, James Neal, Frank Corrado, Alex Galchenyuk, Dominik Simon, Sam Lafferty, Drake Caggiula

• Rust (344 points) surpassed defenseman Ron Stackhouse (343) for 20th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Penguins forward Reilly Smith returned to the lineup after missing six games due to a suspected left arm injury.

• Penguins defenseman John Ludvig, sidelined for the previous 11 games due to an undisclosed injury, was formally activated from long-term injured reserve and was scratched from the lineup.

• Penguins forward Colin White was a healthy scratch.

• Sullivan appeared in his 800th game as a head coach.

• Guentzel appeared in his 500th career game.