Alex Nedeljkovic Follows Up Goalie Goal in WBS with Huge Shutout versus Vegas

Alex Nedeljkovic is making a name for himself in Pittsburgh, for almost all the right reasons. 

The Northeast Ohio native celebrated a pair of wins on Sunday, watching his beloved Browns defeat the hometown Steelers before returning to NHL game action and pitching a 38-save shutout in a 3-0 victory against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights.

“I thought Ned was solid in his first game back here. Huge effort by him,” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said.

Shutting out a team like Vegas - who entered this game with a 13-3-2 record - is a difficult task in itself, but Nedeljkovic pulled off that feat despite not having a lot of playing time going in. 

He had been placed on long-term injured reserve after suffering a lower-body injury in his last start on Oct. 24 vs. Dallas, and had to miss a total of 10 NHL games and 24 calendar days.

“Ned was great. It’s like he was never out,” said Noel Acciari, who scored his first goal of the year and as a Penguin in the contest, and so did Ryan Graves, with Evgeni Malkin sealing the victory with an empty-netter. “He looked phenomenal, composed. Just very comfortable.”

It’s the second time Vegas has been held off the scoreboard this season, which was the cherry on top of a terrific weekend, as Nedeljkovic found the back of the net himself in his conditioning stint with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday in a 4-2 win over Providence. He is now the first goalie in American Hockey League history to score multiple goals, as he also did so back in 2018.

“Very exciting,” Nedeljkovic said of the tally. “It had been a while, so I was thinking about that celebration for a long time.”

He called the weekend a little chaotic, as there was a decent amount of travel involved, but also a lot of fun getting back in the saddle.

“It was nice to get back out there in Providence. It was about three and a half weeks since I played,” Nedeljkovic said. “Until you get into a game, you're never really sure. You can't really stop or take it slow. You have to be on it, and you have to be ready for anything. So, Friday night was great. I got to push it a little bit and responded well. Obviously, tonight was a great night as well.”

Sullivan felt like that appearance went a long way towards setting Nedeljkovic up for success tonight in Pittsburgh.

“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,” Sullivan said. “I give him a lot of credit for putting the time in and the work in to prepare himself for this one.”

Nedeljkovic said he has grown comfortable with stepping up in big situations, even after extended periods off the ice.

“It doesn't matter if you're playing every other night or every seven to 10 days,” he said. “You’ve just got to be ready to go whenever your name is called. I think a lot of it has to do with how we approach practice, just trying to be sharp every day. You can get away with letting up goals and stuff obviously in practice, but when you commit to playing every puck and focusing on the little details, it makes everything out there seem a little bit slower.”

Nedeljkovic credited his teammates for their strong defensive play, saying that guys did a terrific job of tying up sticks, getting in lanes, blocking shots, and cleaning up rebounds. Graves returned the praise, saying that the odd time they were sloppy coming off a loss on Saturday in Carolina where they didn’t have their best, Nedeljkovic bailed them out.

“It was a big win for us. It was a tough night last night in Carolina,” said Nedeljkovic, wearing his Myles Garrett jersey in his post-game interview. “Guys played hard, didn't get the result. To be able to come and get two points tonight, split a back-to-back, I think we'll take that.”

The Penguins have two days between games, with the red-hot New York Rangers next up on Wednesday. When asked if he would consider starting Nedeljkovic over Tristan Jarry in that game, Sullivan said it was probably too early to say.

“I thought Tristan played extremely well last night (in Carolina) also,” Sullivan said. “He gave us an opportunity to win, made some real big saves for us… we'll make decisions moving forward, but what I will tell you is we got a lot of hockey coming up. We're going to rely on both of those guys.”