Backup goalie, fortunate bounce aid Rangers
PITTSBURGH — It had been 38 days since Ondrej Pavelec last started a game, the Rangers’ backup goaltender only getting two relief appearances while Henrik Lundqvist started 14 consecutive games. Pavelec was supposed to wait even longer, boarding the plane Monday expecting Lundqvist to start Tuesday against the Penguins.
But Pavelec was thrust into action as Lundqvist remained at the team hotel with the flu, and on a night of puck luck came through with a 41-save performance, 38 over the final two periods as the Rangers topped the reigning two-time Stanley Cup champions, 4-3, to win for the 12th time in 15 games.
“I’m very happy for a win because I didn’t have much starts the last few weeks,” said Pavelec, who in six previous appearances (three starts) had a 3.56 GAA and .889 save percentage. “It doesn’t really matter if you play 10 or 1. Of course it’s big for my confidence that I’m able to win the game.”
He was aided by the post at least three times, including on a breakaway in the first period, when he faced only four shots on goal before seeing 23 in the second.
A bounce also went the Rangers’ way on the winning goal with 8:48 left in the game when Pavel Buchnevich’s centering attempt for Brendan Smith deflected off Kris Letang’s stick and past Tristan Jarry.
The Rangers (15-10-2,) who remain in sixth place in the Metro but are only four points back of the division-leading Devils, tied the game in the first on Boo Nieves’ first career NHL goal, tied it in the second with another fourth-line goal, that from Jesper Fast, and took the lead late in the third when Mats Zuccarello finished off J.T. Miller’s heads-up stretch pass. Zuccarello’s two points give him 22 for the season, tying him for the team-lead with Mika Zibanejad, who didn’t travel and missed his third straight game with a concussion.
“I saw (Zuccarello) take off out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t settle the puck,” said Miller, who led Ranger forwards in ice time with 18:25 while the Jimmy Vesey-Kevin Hayes-Rick Nash line sat the final 9:12. “It was spinning so I couldn’t hit him up the middle. I had to just kind of get lucky for it to hit him on his tape, I guess. I’m trying to do that, but for it to actually be flat enough for him to go in was fortunate.”
Signed to a one-year, $1.3 million deal, Pavelec surely will see more starts as the schedule picks up and stepped into the critical No. 2 role filled excellently the last four seasons by Cam Talbot and Antti Raanta. It hasn’t been easy for him to wait his turn for so long and he was grateful for the help of the goalposts.
“It’s nice to see I had that luck tonight,” Pavelec said, “and you need it.”
He did, but he’ll rightfully get plenty of credit for helping stifle the Cup champs’ onslaught on short notice.