McGroarty Injured as Jarry, Penguins Shut Out Chicago

The stakes were clear when the Pittsburgh Penguins faced Chicago at PPG Paints Arena Tuesday night.

Probably because there were very few of them, and almost none were of real consequence.

OK, so the Penguins were trying to preserve their chances of finishing the season with a break-even 82 points and both clubs are still trying to determine where they’ll fit in in the pre-lottery draft order, but that’s about it.

The Penguins’ 5-0 victory raised their record to 32-35-12 — they will finish at NHL .500 if they win their final three games — and goalie Tristan Jarry earned his second shutout of the season by stopping 26 shots, but this otherwise meaningless win might have come at considerable cost.

Rookie winger Rutger McGroarty left the game late in the second period after blocking a Connor Bedard shot during a penalty-kill. He did not return for the third, and there was no immediate word on the nature or severity of his injury.

Assistant coach David Quinn, who handled the postgame press conference, said only that McGroarty is being evaluated for an unspecified lower-body injury.

The Penguins already were without forwards Philip Tomasino, who has a concussion, and Blake Lizotte, who has an unspecified upper-body injury.

Their absences prompted the Penguins to summon winger Matt Nieto from their farm team in Wilkes-Barre on an emergency recall. He played on the fourth line, alongside Joona Koppanen and Noel Acciari.

The Penguins entered the third period with a 2-0 lead and got an opportunity to pad their advantage when Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy shot a puck over the glass and was assessed a delay-of-game minor at 2:04.

They were unable to convert that chance, but Kris Letang made it 3-0 at 4:28, as he got a pass from Evgeni Malkin and beat Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight from inside the right circle.

Connor Timmins received the second assist on the goal, Letang’s ninth of the season and first in 20 games.

Any lingering doubt about the outcome — and there shouldn’t have been much — was removed at 7:42, when Kevin Hayes put a shot off Knight’s glove and into the net for his 12th. Danton Heinen and Connor Dewar got assists.

Hayes and Heinen teamed up again at 18:13, as Hayes deflected a Heinen shot behind Knight to close out the scoring.

The Penguins got the first power play of the game when Chicago defenseman Kevin Korchinski was sent off for tripping at 7:55 of the opening period, but were unable to capitalize on it.

They got another opportunity with the extra man when Korchinski was penalized for hooking at 19:38, and didn’t take long to manufacture a goal.

Sidney Crosby scored it, his 31st, with 15.3 seconds to go before the intermission. He was at the inner edge of the left circle and chipped a Rickard Rakell pass by Knight.

Bryan Rust got the second assist on the goal, which extended Crosby’s points streak on home ice to 14 games.

At the start of the second period, coach Mike Sullivan moved rookie winger Ville Koivunen from the second line to the first, and dropped McGroarty from the No. 1 unit to the second.

Koivunen nearly set up Crosby for a goal on their first shift together, and did pick up an assist a few minutes later.

He slid a cross-ice pass to Erik Karlsson, who was at the bottom of the left circle and threw a shot past Knight for his 11th goal of the season and 200th in the NHL. Rust stole the puck to trigger the scoring sequence and received the second assist.

Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea was called for cross-checking at 17:58, but the Penguins managed to get through those two minutes unscathed.

On the scoreboard, anyway, because that’s when McGroarty was injured.

The Penguins have a scheduled day off Wednesday. They will return to practice Thursday at 11 a.m. at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.