DeSmith outduels Murray with 26-save shutout in Penguins' 2-0 victory taken in Ottawa, Ontario (Penguins)

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Casey DeSmith stops Senators forward Mark Kastelic Thursday night in Ottawa.

OTTAWA, Ontario -- Stopping pucks in the National Hockey League can be pretty difficult, as Casey DeSmith has been reminded a few times this season.

Knowing when DeSmith is on his game, when every puck that comes his way will appear to be the size of a medicine ball -- the way they did when he made 26 saves during the Penguins' 2-0 victory over the Senators Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre -- isn't nearly as tough.

Not for Mike Sullivan, anyway.

"You can see it in his body language, when he has a certain bounce in his step," Sullivan said. "And I thought he had it tonight. He made two or three real good saves throughout the course of the game that we needed, quite frankly."

His latter point was pretty much impossible to dispute. DeSmith, though, said there are no cues or sixth sense that let him know ahead of time that his game is fully in sync, the way it proved to be against Ottawa.

"Maybe partway through the game, you start to build some confidence if the game is going well," he said. "But there's no magic feeling."

He surely had a pretty good one when the game was over, though. Especially when it put him on the sunny side of .500, at least according to NHL accounting (4-3-2).

"It's something to build on," DeSmith said. "Every solid outing, good game, builds a little bit more confidence."

DeSmith got the only goal he needed at 7:25 of the second period, when Jeff Carter beat Matt Murray on the blocker side from above the left hash mark.

The goal was made possible by Kris Letang, who picked off a Thomas Chabot clearing attempt at the right point, then slid a pass to Carter.

"(Letang) made a great read of jumping up and intercepting that pass," Carter said. 

Neither team scored again until Bryan Rust hit an empty net with 11.3 seconds to go in regulation, after Murray had been replaced by an extra attacker.

Although stopping 42 of 43 shots wasn't enough to get Murray a victory in his first appearance against his former team, it did earn him recognition as the game's No. 1 star. And a lot of praise from the guys with whom he used to share a locker room.

"He came out and he played a really good game," John Marino said.

Murray's old coach agreed. And elaborated.

"Obviously, we have a long history with him, and I know his game really well," Sullivan said. "When he's on his game, he makes some difficult saves look easy, and I thought that was the case tonight. He made some real good saves."

That Carter's goal was enough to provide the Penguins' margin of victory obviously reflected well on DeSmith -- after all, it's tough to improve on perfection -- but it also was a credit to their overall defensive work.

"This was a pretty solid 60 minutes, throughout the lineup," Carter said. "(DeSmith) made some good saves for us, but I thought that's probably our most complete game in a long time."

There were some lapses, such as the short-handed breakaway that Dylan Gambrell got early in the second period, but it was a pretty sound defensive performance.

The Penguins did a particularly good job around their net, which has been a problem area for much of the season. Against the Senators, they boxed out and tied up sticks effectively, limiting the number of second-chance opportunities Ottawa generated.

"We did a good job taking care of the net-front," DeSmith said. "There were very few shots that I had trouble picking up. It's always a good feeling, as a goalie, when you're seeing everything. It definitely builds some confidence."

So does a strong outing by the backup goalie, especially one who has struggled at various points in the season.

For while Marino contended that "we always had faith in him," performances like the one against Ottawa tighten DeSmith's grip on his role as Tristan Jarry's backup, That's a job he could risk losing to Louis Domingue, who is injured, or even someone outside the organization if he continued to sputter.

"We're thrilled for him,' Sullivan said. "He's played a lot of good hockey for us over the past few years. We know what he's capable of. It's games like this."

Even if DeSmith isn't aware when one of them is coming.

MORE FROM THE GAME

Sidney Crosby's bid for his 500th career goal failed, as Murray stopped all six shots Crosby launched at him, but he did pick up an assist on Rust's empty-netter and make a critical block when Ottawa was pressing for a tying goal late in regulation. "I thought he was tremendous tonight, on both sides of the puck," Sullivan said. "He defends hard. That's one of the reasons we use that line in 5-on-6 scenarios. ... He didn't score tonight, but he certainly played the game in such a way that helped us win."

• An easy-to-overlook aspect of the Penguins' victory: They were short-handed just once, when Marcus Pettersson took a high-sticking minor nine minutes into the second period. Ottawa scored on two of three chances with the extra man during a 6-3 victory here Nov. 13. "I thought we did a great job staying out of the box," DeSmith said. "They have a pretty good power play."

• Carter had a chance to get his second goal of the night when he had a short-handed breakaway midway through the second period, but couldn't beat Murray. "I was trying to wait him out," Carter said, laughing. "I should probably learn a new move."

Mike Matheson got away with an inadvertent high stick that drew blood from Ottawa winger Brady Tkachuk during the second period. Matheson deserved a double-minor, but referees Garrett Rank and T.J. Luxmore apparently did not see his stick make contact with Tkachuk.

• Rust managed to up his goals total for the season to 16 when he scored into the empty net, but failed to capitalize on a stellar chance with about four minutes to go in the opening period. He got off a close-range backhander, but missed a mostly open net.

• DeSmith, on having Murray at the other end of the ice: "It was fun to be in a goalie battle against him."

• Betting against the Penguins when they are ahead at the second intermission is no way to get wealthy. They are 22-1-1 when leading at the end of two periods this season.

Kasperi Kapanen had one of his better games of late -- not that the standard for that is particularly high -- as he was more physically involved and assertive than usual, fighting through checks along the boards several times. 

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
Live file
Scoreboard
• 
Standings
• 
Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Canadian Tire Centre:

1. Matt Murray, Senators
2. Casey DeSmith, Penguins
3. Jeff Carter, Penguins

THE HIGHLIGHTS

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THE INJURIES

Drew O'Connor is on the Long-Term Injured list, retroactive to Jan. 15, because of an unspecified upper-body injury. He has resumed on-ice workouts and was in a regular jersey for Thursday's optional game-day skate.

Teddy Blueger is expected to miss 6-to-8 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured jaw. 

Jason Zucker is listed as week-to-week after undergoing core-muscle surgery.

Evgeni Malkin missed the past two games after entering the Covid protocol, but has been released and is expected to be available when the Penguins play in New Jersey Sunday.

Louis Domingue has an unspecified lower-body injury.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan's lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Radim Zohorna-Evan Rodrigues-Danton Heinen
Zach Aston-Reese-Brian Boyle-Dominik Simon

Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
Mike Matheson-Chad Ruhwedel

And for D.J. Smith's Senators:

Brady Tkachuk-Tim Stutzle-Adam Gaudette
Alex Formenton-Nick Paul-Connor Brown
Zach Sanford-Dylan Gambrell-Austin Watson
Chris Tierney-Mark Kastelic-Tyler Ennis

Thomas Chabot-Nikita Zaitsev
Nick Holden-Anton Zub
Erik Brannstrom-Josh Brown

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins are scheduled to practice Friday at 12 p.m. in Cranberry.

THE CONTENT

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