Fantastic Finish: Malkin Gets Game-Winner in Final Minute, 2-1

Tristan Jarry has accomplished a lot of things during his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But 177 games into his NHL career, beating the Dallas Stars wasn’t on the list.

Now, Jarry hadn’t had many opportunities and he actually had played awfully well when facing Dallas — he had a 1.94 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in two appearances — defeating the Stars still was on his to-do list Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Not anymore.

Jarry was beaten on Dallas’ first shot of the game, but stopped the 26 that followed to help the Penguins earn a 2-1 victory over Dallas.

His performance was rewarded with two points when Evgeni Malkin scored from the inner edge of the left circle with 34.7 seconds left in regulation to break a 1-1 tie.

“It was a little bit of a lucky goal,” said Malkin, who has a six-game points streak but did not have a goal in the previous nine games.

Getting the game-winner put an exclamation point on a strong two-way performance by Malkin and his linemates, Bryan Rust and Jason Zucker.

“His commitment to play on both sides of the puck was terrific,” Mike Sullivan said. “We’re thrilled that he got rewarded.”

Malkin’s goal extended the Penguins’ winning streak to six games, five of which have come on home ice, and raised their record to 17-8-4.

Penguins defenseman Jeff Petry was the only player on either team who was unavailable because of an injury. He appeared to hurt his left arm/wrist/hand late in the Penguins’ 3-1 victory against Buffalo Friday.

Petry’s absence opened a spot in the lineup for Chad Ruhwedel, who was paired with P.O Joseph. The other defense tandems were Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin-Jan Rutta.

Dallas grabbed a 1-0 lead 19 seconds into the game, when Roope Hintz threw a shot past Tristan Jarry from inside the right circle. Hintz got the puck when Letang, who apparently was trying to kick it to Pettersson, sent it directly to Hintz, instead.

Malkin drew a pair of hooking minors in the middle of the period, with Radek Faksa going off at 8:59 and Ryan Suter at 11:58.

The Penguins generated just one shot on Stars goalie Jake Oettinger during their first chance with the man-advantage, but got a game-tying goal on the second.

Joseph scored it — his first of the season and first power-play goal in the NHL — at 13:14, from above the left dot. Oettinger’s only chance to see Joseph’s shot came if he watched a replay on the arena scoreboard, because Zucker had him completely screened.

“That goal’s probably not going in if (Zucker’s) not taking the goalie’s eyes away,” Sullivan said, adding that “it was a terrific shot.”

Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen received the assists on Joseph’s goal, which extended the Penguins’ streak of games in which they’ve scored with an extra man to six.

The Penguins were awarded their third power play of the period with 33.2 seconds to be before intermission, when Dallas defenseman Colin Miller high-sticked Brock McGinn, but were unable to capitalize.

Jarry preserved the tie with a spectacular save about eight minutes into the second period, as he denied Ty Dellandrea after he broke down the slot alone.

Letang absorbed a nasty cross-check from Stars left winger Joel Kiviranta — it knocked him face-first into the boards — late in the period, but did not adjourn to the locker room,

Neither team scored again until Malkin’s dramatic game-winner in the final minute of the third period.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are off until Thursday, when they will visit Florida at 7:08 p.m. That will be the start of a two-game road trip that will conclude Sunday at Carolina at 5:08 p.m.