Khudobin earns recognition

Impossible to mask backup goalie’s value

One might imagine that after the splendid season Bruins No. 2 goaltender Anton Khudobin has given his team — not to mention his somewhat quirky and funny personality — he could not walk down a city street for long without being recog- nized.

Not so, said the 31-yearold Kazakh.

“I’m not walking down the street in a mask,” Khudobin said. “So that’s why nobody can recognize me.”

Maybe that is the case. But it probably should not be, after the performance Khudobin has delivered this year as Tuukka Rask’s backup. He has very capably answered one of the key questions that hung over the B’s entering the season.

Khudobin certainly handled his job well at the Garden in yesterday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Tyler Seguin and the Dallas Stars.

In 16 games, Khudobin has a record of 9-2-4, a 2.40 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. These are numbers that beg the question of a new contract for the goalie who is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in July and is a $1.2 million bargain this season.

Against the Stars, the Bruins overcame a 2-0 deficit and ran their streak of games with at least one point to 13 (9-0-4).

The early hole could have been a lot deeper but for the play of Khudobin, who, unlike most of his teammates, was in GradeA form starting with the opening faceoff. The Stars jumped out to a 12-1 advantage in shots in the first 10 minutes or so, and it actually looked as though a few may have been missed and the real number more like 15-1.

But Khudobin stopped them all.

“I didn’t expect that they were going to come that fast and hard,” Khudobin said. “But I got a good warmup. Like I said (Sunday), they are a highly skilled team. They play a really good structure and they move the puck really well. That’s why (their) shots were in good spots and high quality.”

It looked as though the Bruins were just flat early, and needed time to bring their skating and compete level up to snuff.

“We’re not probably going to find excuses and whatever,” Khudobin said. “Games happen like this sometimes, where you are outshot in the first 10 minutes or whatever. Of course you don’t want to have that. We want to fix that and we will.”

There wasn’t much Khudobin could have done as the Stars struck for two goals early in the second, but he got the chance to change the game later in the period, when an old bugaboo resurfaced for the Bruins: a turnover at the offensive blue line during a power play that handed the opponent a shorthanded breakaway.

This time, it was Radek Faksa who got the puck away from Charlie McAvoy and skated in alone, with the chance to give the defensively stingy Stars a maybe-insurmountable 3-0 lead with 5:30 to go in the second. But as Faksa feinted and went to the backhand, Khudobin stayed right with him and kicked aside the shot with his left pad.

“It was pretty good,” Khudobin said with a shrug. “I like to save the pucks.”

Khudobin didn’t have much chance, if any, to save the final puck that came his way, from Seguin with 2:01 left in overtime. By the time OT ended, the Stars had enjoyed the better part of a minute with a 4-on-3 advantage, as one of the referees was skating around the whole time with his arm raised for a delayed penalty call and Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen long gone to the bench.

Seguin ended up with the puck in front and held, and held, and held . . . before tossing in the game-winner. The wide-open 3-on-3 play of overtime is tough enough for goalies; make it a 4-on-3, with your defenders stuck on the ice and exhausted, and it’s nearly impossible.

“Nothing is impossible,” Khudobin said. “He’s good player and he scored a pretty good goal. He’s just tough. Good goal by him. But at the same time, I can stop that. But I didn’t this time.

“It’s not really easy, overtime, because it’s 3-on-3, a lot of scoring chances, a lot of 2-on-1s, breakaways, stuff like that. It’s not easy, but it’s part of the game.”