Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic delivers remarkable performance with historic goal and assist

By / / Sports / 8 minutes of reading


The Penguins needed a good game from a goaltender, but this was ridiculous.

Alex Nedeljkovic produced a goal, an assist — really — and, oh by the way, played the finest game a Penguins goalie has played all season in a 5-2 win in Buffalo to kick off the longest road trip of the season. He’s the first goalie in NHL history to notch a goal and an assist in the same game.

Even had Nedeljkovic not scored, nor added an assist, this would have gone down as a sensational performance for a couple of reasons. For one, the Penguins have been scuffling in recent games and badly needed a win to right their playoff aspirations. Also, it goes without saying that Nedeljkovic was in the spotlight far more than usual. After all, it was only 48 hours earlier that the Penguins put Tristan Jarry on waivers before sending him to Wilkes-Barre for the second time this season. He will very possibly remain in the American Hockey League for the duration of the season.

Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist will now battle for playing time at the NHL level. Nedeljkovic hasn’t enjoyed a particularly good season, but he was at his very best against the Sabres.

While the Penguins did receive goals from Rickard Rakell, Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Glass and Bryan Rust before Nedeljkovic’s empty-netter put the game away, they didn’t exactly play a strong game. Far from it, really.

Yes, they were opportunistic, something that’s been a problem in recent games. But they were sloppy defensively throughout, something that Mike Sullivan has benefited from being furious about in recent games.

The Sabres out-shot the Penguins, 42-19. While the game probably wasn’t as lopsided as that shot total would suggest, the Sabres did indeed have the better of the play throughout most of the evening and enjoyed a number of Grade-A looks against Nedeljkovic. But the goaltender stood tall, stopping 40 of 42 Buffalo offerings.

Blomqvist figures to get the start in Washington on Saturday night, but if Nedeljkovic continues to play like he did in Buffalo, he will certainly receive more opportunities to make the net his.

“I thought he was spectacular all night,” Mike Sullivan said. “He made some huge saves throughout the game. We weren’t as tight defensively as we needed to be. He was there to make the saves for us. Our power play and Ned essentially made the difference in the game.”

Ten postgame observations

• It takes a certain amount of swagger to even attempt a goalie goal. The way Nedeljkovic played all evening, however, surely had him feeling good about himself.

“I didn’t know at first if it was on line,” he said. “I didn’t see it until it was maybe at the far blue (line). Everybody was going nuts. Karl (Erik Karlsson) had his arms in the air. I thought, “Whoa, this is going to go in.’”

Goalies can get themselves into a certain amount of trouble when they hesitate for just a moment before pulling off such an attempt. There was zero hesitation from Nedeljkovic.

That’s two seasons in a row that we’ve seen a goalie goal from a member of the Penguins. Jarry pulled it off in Tampa Bay last season.

It’s one of the coolest things in hockey and Nedeljkovic has now scored a goal at three different levels of hockey.

The only thing that would have made the night more extraordinary? Nedeljkovic dropping the gloves with someone in the game’s final minute. A goalie winning a game, getting into a fight, scoring a goal and notching an assist? I’m pretty sure that would never again happen in NHL history.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing the puck,” Nedeljkovic said. “It’s been part of my game for as long as I can remember. Started with conversations with my dad in the car, saying don’t just throw the puck around the boards.”

• The goal was a sensational moment, make no mistake. I don’t mean to deflect attention away from it.

“It’s awesome,” Rust said. “I love that s—.”

Nonetheless, the real story of this game was Nedeljkovic’s ability to prevent goals. What a performance.

The Penguins literally haven’t won a game because of a goaltender all season, not until this game. I don’t know if I’d say the Sabres dominated the game, but they were the better team most of the game and their big guns had the majority of the good looks.

Time and time again, Nedeljkovic slammed the door. His rebound control was especially good.

I think it says something about his competitive fire that he played at this level on a night when all eyes were on him. Goaltending has been a massive problem for the Penguins all season, obviously. For Nedeljkovic to author a story like this only two days after Jarry was dispatched to Wilkes-Barre is quite a story.

Nedeljkovic very clearly has the ability to control his emotions, something he showed tonight. He was on the verge of tears on Wednesday while discussing Jarry’s situation with the local media. The two are friends and Nedeljkovic has endured similar troubles in his career. The Jarry demotion legitimately hit him hard. That he responded in this fashion is impressive.

• Defensively speaking, I disliked pretty much everything that I saw from the Penguins in this game.

They were far too cavalier in the defensive zone. Erik Karlsson was probably the biggest offender, as a couple of glorious Buffalo chances came as a result of his lapses.

I can’t say the Penguins did anything especially well in the defensive zone, yet their goaltender was there to save the day.

They should have named Nedeljkovic the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 star.

• That said, the Penguins did bury most of the chances they had, and there is something to be said for that.

Where would the Penguins be without Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust? I think the only proper answer is, “Much lower in the standings.”

Rakell evened the game at 1 early in the second period with a power-play tally, the first of three times the Penguins scored on the man advantage.

It was Rakell’s 23rd goal of the season. What force he has been all season.

The same can be said of Rust, who notched his 18th goal of the season, also on the power play. There once was a time when Rust scored a lot of dirty goals but not many other kinds. Those days are long gone. Oh, he still scores dirty goals, but this snipe was purely a goal-scorer’s goal.

• It was an interesting night for Evgeni Malkin. He took a bad penalty, a four-minute high-sticking penalty. He also was guilty of goaltender interference, though I thought that call was debatable.

Through it all — Malkin didn’t have a point — I thought it was the best he’s looked physically in quite some time. He has been battling an injury and recently missed four games. I didn’t particularly like how he looked against Seattle earlier this week.

This was a different Malkin. He had a determination about him and his wheels looked good. I expect him to have a productive road trip.

• I have mentioned confidence a lot this season, and its impact on players. We’ve seen Jarry’s dip. We’ve seen Drew O’Connor’s dip.

It’s funny how some players look different the second they receive a jolt of confidence. Glass has been playing perfectly decent hockey this season, but his lack of offense is noteworthy. Glass only had scored one goal all season entering this game.

Well, that changed in this one. Glass delivered a beautiful feed to Beauvillier, and he finished the chance, giving the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

That pass must have done something for him because later in the period, he received a pretty Phil Tomasino feed and buried his second goal of the season.

The goal and the assist were wonderful, but what I really noticed was the way in which Glass played for the remainder of the evening. His skating and his confidence in challenging players one-on-one suddenly looked different.

This is a player with talent. The more he believes in himself, the more I suspect we could see an intriguing player. It will be interesting to monitor him during the next few weeks. Let’s see if this night triggers something inside of him.

• I can’t say enough about the job Matt Grzelcyk has done on the Penguins’ top power play. He’s literally better at running the unit than Karlsson or Kris Letang.

No one could have expected it, but here we are.

• Speaking of Letang, he missed the game in Buffalo due to an illness. This is the second stint in which Letang has missed games due to illness this season.

Ryan Graves entered the lineup as a result of Letang’s absence and played perfectly well, which has actually been a pretty common occurrence with him during the past couple of months. He’s getting better.

• What a mess the Sabres are as an organization. Yikes.

• This is quite a start to the road trip for the Penguins. I didn’t like the mood in the locker room at all after the Jarry news and, honestly, I don’t know that I like how the Penguins played in this game. Getting two points, though, can do funny things for a hockey team.

The Penguins aren’t good and I don’t know that they’ll be a playoff team, but they’re still worth watching.

Nedeljkovic added to this reality on this night.

(Photo: Bill Wippert / NHLI via Getty Images)





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Avatar of Christi Melton
Christi Melton is a writer from The Newspring. She writes about lifestyle, books, sports, education and technology. Her hobbies include reading and playing tennis.

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