Murray Rebounds: Penguins Douse Lightning in OT

From behind his mask, Penguins goalie Matt Murray watched as Alex Killorn raced toward him at top speed. The Lightning forward had blown past Murray’s teammate, Brian Dumoulin, at the Tampa Bay line to gain free and clear access to the Pens’ net. The Thunder Bay native was the only obstacle between Killorn and a certain go-ahead goal.

Murray coiled. Killorn fired. The puck glanced off the rookie’s blocker and bounded harmlessly away.

If the black and gold go on to defeat Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference Finals, Murray’s huge save in the waning moments of the second period may well be the tipping point. It gave the Pens an enormous lift when they needed it most.

It may also prove to be a seminal moment in Murray’s career.

After dazzling through the regular-season homestretch and his first seven playoff games, the bloom suddenly seemed to have fallen from the rose for the erstwhile phenom.

Indeed, during the first period of last night’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Lightning at Consol Energy Center, Murray allowed a pair of late goals within a 2:33 span to squelch a promising Penguins start. The first on an Anton Stralman riser over his perceived weak glove hand. The second on an eminently stoppable wrister by Jonathan Drouin off the rush.

Including his shaky first period, No. 30 had allowed 11 goals on the past 86 shots he’d faced. A ragged .872 save percentage.

If I were Penguins coach Mike Sullivan? I’d have been sorely tempted to pull Murray in favor of veteran Marc-Andre Fleury. In fact, I would’ve made the switch to begin the second period.

Sullivan stuck with the kid. His faith was rewarded. In the bend-but-not-break fashion that’s become his hallmark, Murray turned aside 13 Tampa Bay shots over the final 40 minutes and change. Including the game-saving stop on Killorn and an equally impressive pad save on Ondrej Palat in the closing minutes of regulation to keep the score knotted at 2-2.

“What we’ve always liked about Matt is his ability to respond when things don’t go the way he would like they to go or he expects them to go,” Sullivan said. “He’s always responded in such a positive way.”

Forty seconds into overtime Pens captain Sidney Crosby took a short feed from Bryan Rust and beat Murray’s counterpart—fellow 21-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy—high to the stick side.

Valiant in defeat, Vasilevskiy trudged off the ice. Murray joined his teammates in raucous celebration.

No, his performance wasn’t pretty. Nor was it perfect. But the youngster’s mental toughness and coolness under fire helped the Pens earn a crucial victory and even the series at 1-game apiece heading to Tampa Bay.

“I kind of battled through it mentally,” Murray said. “And I thought I made a couple big saves in the third when I needed to.”

Lighting the Lamp

In addition to Crosby, Matt Cullen and Phil Kessel scored for the Penguins. Cullen pounced on a juicy rebound at 4:32 of the first period and beat Vasilevskiy (38 saves) high to the stick side for his fourth goal of the playoffs.

Five minutes later Kessel scooped up a deflection off the skate of hulking Andrej Sustr and lasered the puck past Vasilevskiy for his team-best sixth postseason goal.

Ice Chips

Justin Schultz replaced struggling Olli Maatta on defense. The ex-Oiler logged 13:32 of ice time and two shots on goal. Patric Hornqvist shook off a pregame injury to play nearly 20 minutes. His seven hits were second to Chris Kunitz, who finished with a game-high nine.

Eric Fehr and Tom Kuhnhackl assisted on Cullen’s goal. Nick Bonino and Carl Hagelin set up Kessel’s.

Rust and Dumoulin got the helpers on Crosby’s overtime tally. Sid’s OT winner was the first of his playoff career.