It probably wasn’t how he envisioned making his Pittsburgh Penguins debut, but goaltender Magnus Hellberg came into NHL action for the first time since joining the Penguins organization this summer.
Hellberg was called up due to the injury to Alex Nedeljkovic, who has since been placed on Long Term Injured Reserve. With Ned now being out for a long time, the Penguins are going to need to lean on the Swedish Hellberg now and again as they try to recover from a rough early season start.
After allowing 3 goals on just 9 shots Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, the Penguins opted to pull starter Tristan Jarry in favor of Hellberg, who came into the game at 5:28 elapsed time in the second period.
Hellberg looked good early on. He held down the fort for the remainder of the period, including a few saves that got the home crowd at PPG Paints Arena fired up.
Those saves helped turn the tides ever so slightly for Pittsburgh, who got on the board late in the period, when an angry Sidney Crosby finally was able to tip one in the net to make it a 3-1 score at the end of 40 minutes of play.
Seth Rorabaugh shared on Twitter during the game that Hellberg etched himself into the history books for the Penguins as soon as he touched the ice. Per Seth, Hellberg is now both the tallest, at 6′ 6, and heaviest, at 220 pounds, goaltender in Penguins history.
Hellberg surpassed both Dany Sabourin and and Matt Murray for height (both were 6′ 4) and Thomas Greiss (219) to set records.
Hellberg finished the night with 14 saves on 16 shots. He had a magnificent second period, and helped bring Pittsburgh back to life after another rough start early in a game.
But his third period brought him back down to earth in a hurry. Hellberg allowed 2 goals in under a minute, and a 3-1 game with a sliver of hope suddenly became a lost cause and traffic jams at the stadium exits.
Hellberg was the victim of some incredibly fancy deking in close by Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk:
Then seconds later gave up a breakaway goal to Drake Batherson.
What started out as a pretty positive night for Hellberg ended abruptly, and for the Penguins as a whole, it was another poor effort and poor performance on the ice.
Pittsburgh now sits at 3-5-0 on the year.
(Featured image of Hellberg during his time in the AHL this season from KDP Studio)
Fifth Avenue Sports 
Leave a comment