David Backes
After missing the last three regular-season games with injury, Backes wasn't a lock to make the lineup for Wednesday's Game 1. So, the Blues should feel especially fortunate after stealing Wednesday's opener - a game in which they were outshot nearly 2-1.
Backes was culpable in the Blues being hemmed in throughout, but came through with the most important moment of the night, banking an overtime winner off the skate of Trevor van Riemsdyk and through the legs of Corey Crawford.
Important and improbable, geometry aside. Backes' banker was his first career overtime playoff goal, and he has just two in 727 career regular-season games.
Jeff Zatkoff
Penguins fans broke into a collective hyperventilation when Marc-Andre Fleury failed to emerge out of the tunnel for warmup in Game 1, and, after connecting the dots, it was determined that journeyman Zatkoff would be making his Stanley Cup playoff debut.
Alarmists quickly concluded that for the Penguins, several months worth of being one of, if not, the best team in the NHL had gone to waste. And even the team itself looked jumpy, having been on their heels for several shifts off the opening draw.
But then Zatkoff (who knew he was playing the night before) settled in, and the Penguins followed suit. Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist led a five-goal surge in support of their emergency starter, who made 35 saves in the face of 37 shots for a comfortable Game 1 win.
Ben Lovejoy/Tom Kuhnhackl
Pittsburgh's win wasn't without nervy moments, of course.
After Derek Stepan cut Pittsburgh's lead to one on a 5-on-3 advantage, Zatkoff dropped down a pad to stop a point shot, in the process freeing up Dan Boyle for what appeared to be a tap-in into an empty net.
But Lovejoy was there, swinging around fast enough to chop the puck away from Boyle's blade. And when the Rangers failed to recoup possession, Kris Letang sent Nick Bonino and Kuhnhackl away on a 2-on-1.
There, it was Bonino to Kuhnhackl and into the back of the net shorthanded - a massive two-goal swing in favor of Pittsburgh.
