Penguins goalie Jarry scores into empty net in 4-2 victory over Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Goalie Tristan Jarry scored an empty-net goal and made 39 saves in the Pittsburgh Penguins; 4-2 comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Thursday night.

Jarry stopped a dump-in and sent the puck end-to-end into the net with 1:08 left.

“It was pretty lucky,” Jarry said. “It’s pretty neat, honestly. It’s something that doesn’t; happen very often. There’s very few that have done it, so it’s definitely pretty cool. But honestly the win means more.”

Jarry is the fourth goalie to score in the past 10 years, and 14th overall in the regular season. He looked at the boards at first for a potential clearing try before taking aim at the opposing goal.

“It was just kind of the perfect scenario,” Jarry said. “It was coming in kind of slow and I was able to just get around it, and shoot as hard as I could.”

It was the first goal scored by a Penguins goalie. Jarry also had a goal for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL on Nov. 14, 2018, at Springfield.

“I’m really happy for him,” Penguins star Sidney Crosby said.

Jeff Carter scored the go-ahead goal in the third period for the Penguins, who also got goals from Crosby and Drew O’Connor.

Steven Stamkos and Tanner Jeannot scored for the Lightning. NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov had two assists to tie his career high with an eight-game points streak. He finished with a team-record 28 points (in 14 games) for the month of November.

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots.

Tampa Bay has lost three in a row.

“At times in the game we made crazy board decisions, and every time we make one it ends up in the back of the net,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

After trailing 2-0, the Penguins took a 3-2 lead when Carter stopped an 18-game goal drought 2:49 into the third with his 432nd NHL goal.

“It felt good,” Carter said. “It’s been a while.”

Crosby skated in along from the left wing boards and lifted home a nifty wrist shot from the left circle 8:53 into the second to make it 2-1.

O’Connor, playing in his 100th game, tied it at 2 with 36 seconds left in the second off a nice feed by Evgeni Malkin on the Penguins’ 19th shot of the period.

Stamkos and Jeannot, on the power play, had first-period goals.

Stamkos made it 1-0 with a deflection at 9:06 on Tampa Bay’s 15th shot. It was his 525th goal.

Stamkos finished at minus-2 and is minus-14 overall. Kucherov had seven shots, but remained goal-less in seven games against Jarry.