Rookie Nutivaara shines in playoff debut
Two years ago, Markus Nutivaara’s obscure career was jump-started in his native Finland by his unexpectedly strong playoff performance as a replacement for an injured teammate.
The rookie defenseman reprised that role to some acclaim Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.
Inserted in the lineup due to the injury suffered by standout Zach Werenski, the 22-yearold sparkled in his NHL postseason debut. Nutivaara scored a goal, added an assist and played a strong all-around game in the Blue Jackets’ 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of the opening-round series.
The Blue Jackets staved off playoff elimination, cutting their series deficit to 3-1, with Game 5 set for Thursday in Pittsburgh. You can bet that Nutivaara will be part of coach John Tortorella’s lineup after having been made a healthy scratch in the first three games of the series.
“I thought Nuti played one of his better games for us,” said Tortorella, who also received good minutes from another defensive replacement, Kyle Quincey. Nutivaara “played to his strengths, getting the puck out (of the defensive zone), moving the puck up the ice, scores a goal.”
Nothing has ever come easy for the 2015 seventh-round pick, who gained confidence and attention from his outstanding play in that year’s postseason back home. This season, he was a surprise inclusion on the Jackets’ opening-night roster and managed to keep his place for 66 games, thanks to his puck-moving skills and willingness to jump into the offense.
As the playoffs neared, Nutivaara saw less action as coaches perhaps feared that his one-on-one defending would be a liability. Tortorella opted to play Scott Harrington and the inexperienced Gabriel Carlsson ahead of Nutivaara early in this series.
Nutivaara’s fine showing Tuesday night, while paired with Carlsson, will have some questioning the earlier decision to sit him.
“Of course I had butterflies,” he said. “But I just wanted to enjoy — enjoy every moment I could get out there.”
Nutivaara played a composed and assertive game in 9:37 of ice time. He gave the Jackets a 3-0 lead at 4:48 of the second period as he swept a Boone Jenner rebound past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. He started the play by leading a 2-on-1 break and firing a hard, low shot on Fleury that created a big rebound.
“I kind of cheated in our zone,” he said. “I started to skate, and I got the puck … (and) I got a lucky bounce for me.”
One playoff game, one playoff goal.
Nutivaara wasn’t done. In the third period, his diagonal pass to Brandon Saad helped set up Jenner’s goal at 5:37.
NEW YORK — Rick Nash and Jesper Fast scored, Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves and the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Tuesday night to even their first-round playoff series at two games apiece.
New York’s win also ended a six-game losing streak at home in the playoffs going back to the 2015 Eastern Conference Final.
Torrey Mitchell scored for Montreal and Carey Price made 30 saves.
Game 5 is Thursday night in Montreal before the series returns to Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
The Rangers, who gave up the tying goal with 18 seconds left in the third period of Game 2 before losing in overtime, stopped Montreal in the final minutes in this one.
After a lackluster performance in a 3-1 loss in Game 3, the Rangers came out aggressive early in Game 4.
Lundqvist kept it scoreless as he stopped Andrew Shaw on a breakaway midway through the first period.
About a minute later, Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov misplayed the puck along the boards and Fast grabbed the loose puck and slid it through the legs of Price for an unassisted goal at 11:39 to open the scoring.
The Canadiens tied it late in the period. Alexander Radulov eluded the check of Brady Skjei near the Rangers’ bench and passed the puck to Mitchell, who started a 2-on-1 break with Shea Weber and Mitchell scored into an open net with 1:23 remaining. Radulov earned his fourth assist of the series on the play.
The Rangers controlled the play for most of the second period as the Canadiens had only one shot on goal in the first 11 minutes.