Penguins demolish Blackhawks, earn home-and-home split

Tristan Jarry stopped all 26 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season as the host Pittsburgh Penguins bullied the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 on Tuesday.

The Penguins' (32-35-12, 76 points) veterans carried the load offensively as Kevin Hayes tallied twice. Meanwhile, Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang all found the back of the net to help Pittsburgh earn a split in their home-and-home series with the Blackhawks (22-46-10, 54 points).

Bryan Rust added a pair of assists to surpass the 60-point mark for the first time in his career.

Less than five minutes into the contest, Blackhawks defenseman Sam Rinzel narrowly scored his first career goal.

Chicago's 2022 first-round pick took a pass near the high slot and dragged the puck around the defender, before finding the crossbar with his wrist shot.

Crosby extended his home point streak to 14 games with just 16 seconds remaining in the first period while the Penguins were on the man advantage.

The Penguins captain was waiting out front, and after being fed a pass from Rickard Rakell, Crosby poked the puck past Spencer Knight for his 31st goal of the season.

Karlsson notched his 200th career goal as Ville Koivunen found the veteran defenseman open across the crease with 15:15 left in the middle frame.

Karlsson then fed Koivunen in the slot with 4:10 remaining in the second, but Knight denied the rookie's attempt at tallying his first career goal.

With the Penguins on the power play, Evgeni Malkin had his crack at scoring, but found the post with his shot with 16:28 left in the third period.

Letang made it 3-0 just a minute later as he took a give-and-go pass from Malkin before going upstairs past Knight.

Hayes extended the lead to 4-0 with 12:18 remaining as his shot trickled into the back of the net.

Hayes then tacked on a second goal as he tipped the puck past Knight in the game's dying minutes.

Penguins forward Rutger McGroarty left the contest with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot late in the second period.

--Field Level Media