Nedeljkovic's 38 saves shut out defending champ Golden Knights, 3-0

It's Alex Nedeljkovic's world, and everyone else is just living in it.

Well ... this week, at least.

Nedeljkovic, after suffering a lower-body injury in his last start with the Penguins on Oct. 24, made his return to the Penguins' lineup for the first time in nearly a month on Sunday night at PPG Paints Arena against the Golden Knights. His 38-save shutout helped lead the Penguins to a 3-0 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Noel Acciari summed Nedeljkovic's performance up best -- "It's like he was never out. He looked phenomenal, composed, just very comfortable."

Nedeljkovic was tested, and he was tested often. The team in front of him did a good job of protecting the net-front and the high-danger areas for most of the night, but the defending champions were very much a threat. Nedeljkovic stopped six high-danger chances throughout the night, and had a number of otherwise highlight-reel stops:

The Penguins' penalty kill was effective, holding the Golden Knights to just four total shots on three power play opportunities. Nedeljkovic handled them with ease.

"I think all around it was a good night," Nedeljkovic said. "They were tying up sticks, getting in lanes, blocking shots and cleaning up some rebounds for me too."

Nedeljkovic got some needed run support by way of goals from Ryan Graves and Noel Acciari, plus an empty-net goal from Evgeni Malkin to put the game away.

The win brought Nedeljkovic's record on the season to 2-1 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage. That's exceptional. But it's also a small sample size. It's far too early to be having any "is Nedeljkovic the new No. 1 goaltender?" hot takes. But two things can be true now:

1. Nedeljkovic playing at this level can be good for Tristan Jarry, who has three shutouts of his own this season but has been inconsistent from game-to-game at times. The idea behind Kyle Dubas loaded up the goaltending depth this summer was two-fold: It's necessary injury insurance (as evidenced by four different goaltenders starting or backing up for the Penguins in the first month of the season alone), and it fosters healthy competition. Jarry can know that if he has an off night, he might lose the net next game.

2. Perhaps the right move would be to at least start Nedeljkovic next game, Wednesday against the Rangers. That's a tough opponent, and he's earned another game.

Mike Sullivan was asked straight up after Sunday's game about the possibility of Nedeljkovic starting Wednesday, and he said it's "too early to say" what the plan will be in net. He noted that he liked Jarry's game in Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday in which he made 33 saves on 36 shots, even if Jarry didn't get the win. Of course, Sullivan had high praise for Nedeljkovic's game too.

"I thought Ned was solid in his his first game back here," Sullivan said. "Huge effort by him coming back, I think that game that he was able to play for Wilkes-Barre really helped him, because he hadn't seen a real game in a few weeks here. I give him a lot of credit for putting the time in and the work in to prepare himself for this one. So we'll make decisions moving forward. But what I will tell you is we have a lot of hockey coming up, we're going to rely on both of those guys."

That game Sullivan was referring to came when Nedeljkovic was sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier in the week for a one-game conditioning stint to help him get back up to form. He did just that, backstopping Wilkes-Barre to a 4-2 win over the Providence Bruins. He was perfect for much of that that game and holding onto a 3-0 lead until the final three minutes, when the Bruins scored twice with the extra attacker to turn it into a one-goal game. Nedeljkovic scored Wilkes-Barre's fourth goal himself to put the game away:

He got the win with 17 saves, got some needed reps after the extended time off, and made a little history along the way. He became the first goaltender in AHL history to score twice, having last scored a goal in March 2018 while with the Charlotte Checkers. That was actually Nedeljkovic's third career pro goal, too -- he scored in December 2016 in the ECHL with the Florida Everblades. As far as I know, he's the all-time leader in goalie goals in professional hockey, at least in North America. All three goals were actually shot by him too, rather than opponents' own goals that he lucked into getting credit for by touching it last. 

Making history wasn't quite the intention when he got sent down, but snapping his five-year goal drought felt good nonetheless.

"It was just exciting," Nedeljkovic recalled of that moment. "Very exciting. It had been a while (since last scoring) so I was thinking about that celebration for a long time. It was just really exciting. It got a little hairy there, gave up two quick (goals) to them and kind of blew the lead, so I think (his goal) kind of calmed everybody down and forgot about that a little bit."

Lars Eller remarked that Nedeljkovic had "a bit of a smile on his face" on Sunday even before his shutout performance. Just being back and healthy after nearly a month out is enough to make Nedeljkovic smile.

"There's a lot of reasons for him to be happy," Eller said. "You know, being back in the lineup after grinding through an injury and rehabbing. Those things are always tough on guys when they're out for weeks and you're not with the team. For him to come back this way, we're really happy for him."

If Nedeljkovic were to go through and rank the moments that made him smile this week, shutting out the defending Stanley Cup champions and scoring a record-setting goal as a goaltender would probably be near the top of the list. Knowing him, he'd probably have a third moment right up there on his list, and it actually happened before Sunday's game against Vegas.

The Browns beat the Steelers, 13-10.

Nedeljkovic is a native of Parma, Ohio, a town just south of Cleveland. He's a Browns superfan, and he loves to remind everyone of that as often as possible. After practice on Wednesday, when speaking about the possibility that he could come off of long-term injured reserve for this game against Vegas, he joked that he might have to "reschedule" his return -- "The Browns play Sunday," he explained. 

That's why it wasn't at all surprising when Nedeljkovic was in the locker room following his shutout victory, explained that he needed to step away for a moment before coming back for his media availability, and quickly reemerged proudly donning his Myles Garrett Browns jersey.

Nedeljkovic couldn't reschedule his return to the lineup, but he did what he could to keep up with the Browns before his own game. He cut back on the pregame napping, listened to the game on the drive to the arena, and took an extended coffee break pregame to catch up on the game. Whatever he did, it apparently worked.

There probably aren't too many people in this city who could get away with wearing that Browns jersey after they beat the Steelers on Sunday. 

If Nedeljkovic can make games like this one something of a trend and keep leading the Penguins to victories against tough opponents, maybe that can make up for his being an unapologetic Browns fan. 

Maybe.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Alex Nedeljkovic, Penguins G
2. Noel Acciari, Penguins LW
3. Ryan Graves, Penguins D

THE INJURIES

• Defenseman Chad Ruhwedel left this game midway through the third period with a lower-body injury and did not return.

• Forward Vinnie Hinostroza left Saturday's game with a lower-body injury and missed Sunday's game.

• Defenseman P.O Joseph is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. He last played on Nov 4.

• Defenseman John Ludvig is recovering from a concussion sustained in his NHL debut on Oct. 24. He is on long-term injured reserve and is eligible to come off at any time. He is currently in Wilkes-Barre on a conditioning stint and played both Friday and Saturday.

• Defenseman Will Butcher is sidelined with an undisclosed injury sustained at the end of last season. He has resumed skating with a group. He will be put on waivers to be sent down to Wilkes-Barre once healthy. He is on season-opening injured reserve, so his cap hit does not count.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor - Lars Eller - Radim Zohorna
Matt Nieto - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter

Ryan Graves - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Bruce Cassidy's Golden Knights:

Ivan Barbashev - Jack Eichel - Jonathan Marchessault
Brett Howden - Chandler Stephenson - Mark Stone
Paul Cotter - William Karlsson - Michael Amadio
William Carrier - Nicolas Roy - Keegan Kolesar

Brayden McNabb - Shea Theodore
Alec Martinez - Alex Pietrangelo
Nicolas Hague - Zach Whitecloud

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins have a scheduled day off Monday. They'll practice Tuesday at 11 a.m. at PPG Paints Arena. Next game is Wednesday at home against the Rangers.

THE CONTENT

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