Murray picks up Penguins

Matt Murray robbed Connor McDavid on a penalty shot for one of his 38 saves and the Penguins beat the struggling Edmonton Oilers 3-1 last night in Pittsburgh.

Murray’s acrobatic stop on McDavid late in the second period protected a Pittsburgh lead and the Penguins held on to sweep the season series.

Bryan Rust, Teddy Blueger and Jared McCann all scored as Pittsburgh picked up two vital points despite playing without suspended center Evgeni Malkin, forced to sit while serving a one-game suspension for an illegal high stick. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby finished with one assist and spent large portions of the night going head to head with McDavid.

McDavid picked up an assist on Leon Draisaitl’s first-period goal but was otherwise held in check. Mikko Koskinen stopped 31 shots for the Oilers but couldn’t stop Edmonton from falling for the eighth time in nine games.

The second meeting of the season between two of the game’s biggest stars lacked the electricity of the first — when McDavid and Crosby both scored, with Crosby getting the winner in overtime back on Oct. 23 — but with considerably higher stakes, at least for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins entered play with a tenuous one-point lead over Carolina for the second wild card spot in the jam-packed Eastern Conference. Though Pittsburgh rode a career-high 50 saves from Murray in a one-sided road victory in Philadelphia on Monday, it also continued a pattern of one step forward, one step back.

Defenseman Olli Maatta went down in the first period with an upper-body injury that will sideline him indefinitely and the NHL ordered Malkin to sit out as penance after he flung his stick wildly at Philadelphia’s Michael Raffl late in the third period, forcing Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan to get creative in an effort keep his team’s fragile momentum going.