Alex Nedeljkovic makes thoughts clear about scoring historic goalie goal

Riding a three-game losing streak, the Pittsburgh Penguins arrived at KeyBank Center in New York to face the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. Despite trailing 0-1 at the end of the first period, Pittsburgh rallied to win 5-2. However, the game’s highlight belonged to Penguins’s goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who scored an empty-net goal with just three minutes remaining in regulation.

The rare feat was achieved when the Sabres, trailing 2-4, boldly pulled their goalie in the third period in an attempt to get back into the game. Nedeljkovic seized the opportunity, sending the puck 183 feet from his net to the empty Buffalo net, sealing Pittsburgh’s victory.

With this momentous achievement, Alex Nedeljkovic etched his name in the NHL’s century-old history, becoming the 16th goalie to score a goal in a game. Nedeljkovic recounted the experience,

“I got a little bump from one of their guys, spun me around again, so I didn't see it until it was probably maybe at the far blue, and at that point, I saw it was on line, but I saw it was on the ice so I didn't think it had much to it, but everybody was going nuts."

Nedeljkovic continued,

"And I saw [Erik Karlsson] had his arms in the air, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna go in.’ So, yeah, and then just straight beeline for the bench after that.”

The following celebration was memorable: Nedeljkovic jumped onto the Penguins’s bench, where his teammates mobbed him.

“It’s exciting. So, it's nice to receive some of that excitement on my end. Maybe I pushed it a little too far with jumping into the bench there [laughs] but it’s my first goal, what do you expect?” Nedeljkovic said.

On Friday night, Alex Nedeljkovic made another record, becoming the first goaltender to register a goal and an assist in the same game. He made a secondary assist on Cody Glass’s goal at 11:43 in the second period.

Alex Nedeljkovic etches name in NHL history books with rare goal-scoring feat

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. (Credits: Getty)

The Pittsburgh Penguins’s 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night was highlighted by a rare achievement from goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. He became the 16th goaltender in NHL history to score a goal and the ninth in the last 20 seasons, a feat made all the more impressive by his unique career milestone.

NedeljkovNedeljkovic’s his fourth in professional hockey, having previously scored twice in the American Hockey League (AHL) and once in the ECHL. This achievement makes him the only goalie to have scored at every level of professional hockey in North America.

Nedeljkovic also became the second Pittsburgh Penguins goalie to score a goal, following in the footsteps of Tristan Jarry, who achieved the feat on Nov. 30, 2023, with an empty-net goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning.