Game 1 hero Louis Domingue says he expects to start for Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday vs. New York Rangers

A day after stepping up with a stunning relief effort in Pittsburgh's wild Game 1 win of their Stanley Cup playoffs opening-round series against New York, Penguins backup goaltender Louis Domingue said he will likely follow that up with his first career playoff start.

Domingue, Pittsburgh's well-traveled 30-year-old journeyman goaltender, hinted on ESPN's The Point that he expects to start in Thursday night's Game 2 when the Penguins again face the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. «I believe so,» he said, when asked if he would start.

In Tuesday's Game 1 win, starter Casey DeSmith didn't make it through five periods. A lower-body injury sent him skating toward the exit in the middle of the second overtime. Suddenly, the player who wondered if his love of the game would return as his 30th birthday approached was thrust into the spotlight just a few blocks from Broadway, belly filled with spicy pork and all.

What happened next will live on in Penguins lore, no matter how their first-round series with the favored Rangers goes.

Domingue turned aside all 17 shots he faced from New York, buying his teammates enough time to win it on Evgeni Malkin's deflection 5:58 into the third overtime.

Domingue can only hope to pull off a repeat of his unlikely Game 1 cameo. He thought the referees were joking when they skated over to the bench and told him to get loose. They weren't. So Domingue stretched a little, threw on his catcher and blocker and then settled into the crease. It all happened so quickly, there was no time to get jittery.

«You dream about that your whole life, you're playing in overtime in the playoffs, are you kidding me?» Domingue said. «You think you'd be nervous in a situation like that, but it was just fun for