Louis Domingue has become a pretty popular guy in this city over the last four days, and for good reason.
His playoff story has been a great one so far. With Tristan Jarry rehabbing his broken foot, Domingue was the backup to Casey DeSmith in the Penguins' Game 1 Tuesday in New York. When DeSmith left the game in double-overtime with an injury -- a core muscle injury that would end his season -- Domingue entered the game and was perfect in relief, stopping all 17 shots faced in the triple-overtime win. After the game he sheepishly spoke about eating spicy pork and broccoli between the first and second overtimes, a decision he called "not so great" in hindsight.
Domingue took the loss in Thursday's Game 2, though it was hard to fault him for at least four of the five goals allowed.
With Domingue and the Penguins returning home for Saturday's Game 3, Domingue's growing cult hero status was evident.
I spotted a handful of fans in the stands wearing Domingue shirts with a "spicy pork and broccoli" reference, no doubt picked up at some Strip District T-shirt stand. Not only was the pregame media meal at PPG Paints Arena spicy pork and broccoli, the Nakama concession stand behind section 105 quickly added the dish to its menu in honor of Domingue's Game 1 heroics:
PENGUINS
Spicy pork and broccoli
The reaction from the crowd when the starting lineups were announced ahead of Game 3 showed just how much the fanbase has taken to Domingue. Public address announcer Ryan Mill's "In goal, No. 70, Louis Domingue!" was met with a loud roar of "LOUUUUUUU!" from the fans, reminiscent of the "MOOOOOSE!" chants that Johan Hedberg used to receive.
That wasn't a one-off moment, either. Domingue made 32 saves in the Penguins' 7-4 win, and nearly every single one of them resulted in chants of "LOUUUUUUU!" or "LOU-IE! LOU-IE!" from the crowd.
That support from the 18,385 fans in attendance gave Domingue a boost of confidence as he helped carry the Penguins to a 2-1 series lead.
"It was awesome," Domingue said of the chants from the fans. "You know, it's the first experience for me at home, I haven't played one game at home. So it's cool to experience the the full thing, it doesn't get any better than the playoffs. ... The crowd really kept me in this game tonight, coming into the third, having to kill two penalties like that and having to make a couple saves, they really gave me confidence. Definitely."
Domingue's highlights of the night came in that final frame. Evgeni Malkin and Danton Heinen took near back-to-back minor penalties early in the period, when the game was tied 4-4 and the Rangers were pushing to take their first lead of the game. The Rangers had two great chances on the man advantage in that period, and Domingue stopped them both:
"Louis back there was in my opinion our best killer," Heinen said afterward.
"I was very confident that we were going to win that game if we kill those two penalties," Domingue said.
Domingue's best save of the night might have been the one late in the third on Artemi Panarin, shortly before Heinen's would-be game-winner:
"On that save, I kind of saw him on the corner of my eye and tried to just put my body in front of it as kind of a wholesale moment, kind of just get the frame in front of it," Domingue said of that save. "It was a huge moment in my confidence, that's for sure."
Domingue's playing with the confidence of a veteran who has been here before. Mike Sullivan said back before Game 2 in New York that Domingue "has a little swagger to him."
Really, though, Domingue said that feels like a rookie this time of year. Domingue has just one game of NHL experience, an 18-minute relief appearance of Andrei Vasilevskiy for Tampa back in 2018. Other than that one game, his only professional playoff experience of any kind was a five-game run with the AHL's Portland Pirates in 2015, and 10 games with the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators in 2013.
This is Domingue's first time stepping onto this stage. When he was asked how he manages the emotions surrounding the ebbs and flows of an NHL playoff game, he acknowledged that he was very much learning on the job.
"It's a great question, I actually don't know," he admitted. "Because for the first time in the last seven years I've been in the league and (the AHL), It's the first time I'm a rookie again. I'm a rookie at this, the playoffs. I've never seen the NHL playoffs. So every moment, every day is a new day for me. It's a new experience. And I'm taking it one day at a time, one moment at a time."
Staying in the moment like that is what allowed Domingue to remain unshaken after the Rangers roared back from a three-goal deficit and tie the game. After the Penguins came out of the first period up 4-1, the Rangers pushed hard in the second period. They outshot the Penguins 17-7, and three of those shots snuck past Domingue to tie the game.
Domingue wasn't going into the third period with the mindset that they just blew a three-goal lead. He was just focused on what was ahead of him. The Penguins held the Rangers to nine shots on goal, and Domingue stopped them all.
"At the end of the day, nobody cares what the score is," he said. "You give up one goal, it's 1-1. You give up four, it's 4-4. At the end of the day, it's a 0-0 game, and you've gotta win the third. I thought we really elevated our game. Not only me, but the whole team. This was our best period of the series."
With DeSmith done for the year following his core muscle surgery, Domingue at least has a spot on the roster for the rest of the postseason. Jarry only began skating on his own on Saturday morning, and still seems a ways off from being ready to return. Domingue likely has at least a couple more starts in him this playoffs, and is potentially the No. 1 for the remainder of this series against the Rangers.
He may feel like a rookie going through these new experiences, but this has been a moment that Domingue has been preparing for all his life, starting on the streets of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
"You know, from the moment I brought my net outside in the street and put my rollerblades on and played outside and had the cars go around my net, this is the film that was playing in my head the whole time," he said. "So even if it's new to me, this is a film that I've been playing in my head for a long time."
Domingue's story to start this postseason could be one straight out of a feature film. He's looking to ensure that it has a happy ending.
"We're going to go to bed being up 2-1, but tomorrow we're waking up and it's a one-game series," he said. "We've got to win the next one."
