New Backup Goaltender Helps Ducks Tie Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins can make a goalie shake in his skates, even on a night when Mario Lemieux and Rick Tocchet aren’t playing.

There’s still Jaromir Jagr, the hulking wing with the long black hair who handles the puck as if there’s a magnet on his stick. There’s still Ron Francis, Kevin Stevens, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy and the two newest Penguins, ex-Kings Tomas Sandstrom and Shawn McEachern.

The Mighty Ducks sent their new backup goalie, Mikhail Shtalenkov, into the fray Thursday, and he helped them leave Civic Arena with a 2-2 tie and a prized point in the other guys’ building.

“Before the game, I had a good warmup. I said to myself, ‘If you want to play in the NHL, you must try to play good. You have a chance now,’ ” Shtalenkov said.

Less than two minutes into the game, he had allowed a power-play goal on a shot by Mullen. But Shtalenkov’s resistance sharpened, and he stopped Pittsburgh’s powerful attack the rest of the period. He turned away McEachern on a breakaway by stacking his pads and sliding, thwarted other Penguins with deft poke-checks, and finally made a fine snag to glove a hard shot by Jagr.

“We have a lot of faith in Mike (Shtalenkov),” Coach Ron Wilson said, even though Shtalenkov had played in only two NHL games, and in his last had to be pulled after giving up three goals on five shots in the first period of a Nov. 17 loss to Toronto. “It was good for Mike to be able to make the saves he made for himself. He played well in the first period and after that they hardly had a sniff. They only had four shots in the third period.”

Shtalenkov, 28, is new to the NHL, but he is not raw. He played for Dynamo Moscow for six years before the Ducks drafted him in the fifth round in June, and has extensive international experience--enough that Wilson ventured that he might be the best Russian goalie in the world.

Shtalenkov had been in the minors most of the season until Sunday morning, when his arrival served as Ron Tugnutt’s first omen that he had been traded to Montreal. Now Shtalenkov is Guy Hebert’s backup, and the success of the trade that brought center Stephan Lebeau to the Ducks also depends on how well the goaltending holds up.

“I was just a little bit nervous and that’s OK,” said Shtalenkov, who used to face Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure when his Dynamo team played the Central Red Army in the former Soviet Elite League. He also remembers playing for his country in a Super Series game at Civic Arena three years ago.

“We’re playing against Pittsburgh and that’s a big game to me. . . . I’m just glad today I did good,” he said. “But one game is not enough. Ducks want now to play in playoffs.”

Wilson talked his players into stepping up their game after the first intermission, and with the help of a revived and more physical defense, they ended their four-game losing streak.

“I appealed to the guys’ pride and asked them what’s our foundation for success, it’s playing sound defense,” Wilson said. “Our hearts were in it and our bodies were in it, but our minds weren’t. We were mesmerized a couple of times by the puck, particularly with Jagr, where two or three guys went to him.”

McEachern’s second-period goal on a long-range shot--his second goal since returning to the Penguins in the trade that brought Marty McSorley back to Los Angeles--made the lead 2-0.

But the Ducks came back to tie the score on Tim Sweeney’s power-play rebound at 4:50 of the second and Joe Sacco’s well-executed short-handed breakaway at 17:16 of the period.

Shtalenkov and Pittsburgh goalie Tom Barrasso fended off the rest of the scoring attempts, with Barrasso stopping 17 shots over the final 25 minutes and Shtalenkov called on for only five.

“The only reason we got a point was because of Barrasso,” Pittsburgh Coach Ed Johnston said.

The other point belongs to the Ducks.

“I think it’s a very big point for us, especially with the way we’ve played the last three or four games,” Sweeney said. “It’s a good confidence-builder for us.”

* IN CONTENTION

Effective penalty killing, goaltending and coaching have the Ducks in the hunt for aplayoff spot. C3