Penguins goalie Murray out with injury
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, PA. The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to shake out of their early season funk without goaltender Matt Murray.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions placed Murray on injured reserve Tuesday with a lower-body injury.
Coach Mike Sullivan called Murray “week to week” after the 23-year-old left Monday night’s 5-4 overtime win over Philadelphia in the second period following a collision with Flyers forward Jakub Voracek.
Voracek lost his edge while finishing off a breakaway attempt and crashed into Murray, forcing the back of the goaltender’s right leg into the goalpost.
Murray was on the ice for several minutes before making his way to the bench and limping down the runway to the locker-room favouring his right leg.
Tristan Jarry came in and stopped eight of 10 shots as the Penguins rallied from a two-goal deficit to win. Jarry, a 22-year-old rookie, is 2-0-2 with a 2.83 goalsagainst average in limited play this season. He is expected to take over the bulk of the workload during Murray’s absence. Pittsburgh begins a home-and-home series with Buffalo on Friday. The Penguins called up Casey DeSmith from their American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to serve as Jarry’s backup.
“It’s actually pretty wild after being goalie partners last year,” DeSmith said.
“It’s kind of weird just one year later (we’re in the NHL). It happened pretty quick. I’m happy to be down here with someone I’m familiar with.”
Murray is 11-7-1 with a 2.95 GAA this season. He helped the Penguins become the first franchise in nearly 20 years to win consecutive Stanley Cups in June.
Pittsburgh acquired veteran Antti Niemi to serve as Murray’s backup, but the experiment lasted less than a month before Niemi was waived due to poor play.
Murray missed time last season with a hand injury and later a concussion. His 21 appearances this season are tops in the NHL.