In Pittsburgh, Tristan Jarry returned the Penguins crease on Friday night and made an NHL career-high 46 saves in a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators. 
Jarry was injured in the 2023 Winter Classic in Boston.
“I thought I was seeing the puck well,” Jarry said. “I’ve had a little bit of time off. Obviously, it’s never easy having to watch games and it’s never easy having to watch guys go out every night and give it their all, and you can’t be out there with them.”
The Penguins improved to 23-15-7.
Rickard Rakell and Jason Zucker scored 43 seconds apart in the first period to stake the Pens to a 2-0 lead after the the first 20 minutes.
“It’s just fun,” Zucker said. “Scoring goals is why you play the game. Winning games, winning Cups, that’s the goal around here. For me, I know scoring helps win games.”
Rakell scored off the power play at 11:14 of the period.
“Both goalies actually played well,” Ottawa forward Mathieu Joseph said. “But I think we made it a little too easy. I don’t think we were in front of the net enough. He was good, like I said, but it’s hard to score in this league.”
Jake Guentzel, who hit for a double in the game, extended the lead to 3-0 in the 18th minute of the second period.
“I thought there were momentum swings in the game,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “There were times where Ottawa had it, there were times where we had it. I thought the shots came in flurries. They tended to come in flurries when they did.”
Brady Tkachuk was the lone striker for the Senators, his late second period goal cut the the Pens advantage to 3-1.
“The guys, they kept pushing. They tried,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “I thought if you look at the chances, Jarry made some unreal saves. If he’s not as hot as he is tonight, we probably get a bunch more.”
Ottawa dropped to 20-22-3.
“We’re just trying to put our head down and play the entire game,” Ottawa forward Derick Brassard said. “We played a good team. We were expecting a big push from them. We beat them last game. … The bottom line is they capitalized on their chances, and we didn’t put the puck in the net.
“They did a good job. We scored four power-play goals last game, so we were expecting them to be a little bit tighter. It’s just frustrating when you’re shooting so much and have chances.”
Guentzel scored late in the third period for ht e4-1 final.
Cam Talbot made 40 saves in the Sens loss.
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