Penguins beat Blues

In the aftermath of deconstructing his flawed roster, Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas laid out Saturday the base level of expectations of what he demands over the remainder of the regular season from a team that will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

“There’s a certain standard here with the team, and we expect that to be upheld throughout the last number of weeks of the season,” Dubas said in Cranberry. “We expect them to come in, play hard, train, play at their best level each and every day.”

Thursday was one of those days.

Buoyed by a handful of newcomers, the Penguins claimed a 5-3 victory against the St. Louis Blues at PPG Paints Arena. The result boosted a modest winning streak to three games.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry, enjoying something of a micro- renaissance since being recalled from Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton of the American Hockey League on March 3, stopped 33 of 36 shots to improve his record to 11-8-4. A highly unlikely source opened the scoring on the first shot of regulation as Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves scored his first goal of the season at 2 minutes, 17 seconds of the opening period.

Off some determined work on St. Louis’ end boards by Penguins linemates Blake Lizotte, Conor Dewar and Noel Acciari, Lizotte moved the puck to the left half-wall and fed a forehand pass to the near point for Graves. Backtracking a bit toward the center point, Graves released a wrister that found an avenue through a handful of arms, legs and sticks as well as goaltender Jordan Binnington’s glove.

A slightly less unlikely source generated the second goal of the contest 2:20 into the second period when defenseman Conor Timmins scored his third goal of the season and first since he joined the Penguins via trade Friday.

Settling a rimmed puck on St. Louis’ right wing wall, Timmins advanced to the near circle and lifted a wrister to the far side by Binnington’s right arm.

The Blues got on the scoreboard at 11:35 of the second period when rookie forward Zack Bolduc claimed his 12th goal during a power-play sequence.

Dewar, also acquired via trade Friday, scored his first goal of the season at 17:42 of the second frame.

Gaining St. Louis’ zone on the right wing, Lizotte zipped a pass through traffic to the far side of the crease, where Dewar tapped in a forehand shot by Binnington’s right leg.

The Blues struck again on the power play when forward Dylan Holloway scored his 21st goal 1:26 into the third period.

Penguins forward Bryan Rust scored his 22nd goal at 7:15 of the third frame with a deflection of a shot by linemate Rickard Rakell.

Off a feed from the Blues’ right wall by linemate Sidney Crosby, Rakell ripped a wrister toward the near side.

The Blues persisted as forward Alexey Toropchenko tallied his third goal with a dazzling individual effort at 8:56 of the third. From his own zone, Toropchenko dashed through a handful of Penguins defenders before beating Jarry’s glove with a wrister.