Murray comes through after tough decision

The decisions aren’t easy, Mike Sullivan said. They are never easy. “I think long and hard about every decision I make. I find them all difficult. I have so much respect for the players. They all want to play. I know the sacrifices they make, the commitment they have to get better and how hard they work. I don’t take those decisions lightly. They always weigh on me.”

Sullivan made a big one Monday night with the Penguins’ season on the line against the Montreal Canadiens in the bubble in Toronto.

He stuck with Matt Murray despite Murray’s seven-game postseason losing streak, including a 3-2 overtime loss Saturday night in Game 1 of the best-of-five qualifying round series. Murray responded in a big way, outplaying Montreal goaltender Carey Price in a 3-1 win.

“Montreal pushed hard

down the stretch and they generated a couple of highquality chances that Matt made some big saves,” Sullivan said.

“For me, that’s what Matt does at this time of year. He makes big saves at key times that help us win games. I thought he did that for us tonight.”

It would have been easy for Sullivan to turn to Tristan Jarry for Game 2. For one thing, Murray gave up 21 goals in his and the team’s playoff losing streak, allowing four goals in two games and three goals in three others. For another, Jarry was better than Murray during the regular season and made the All-Star Game.

But it’s hard to question Sullivan’s touch with goaltenders.

Remember the 2017 playoffs? Sullivan benched Marc-Andre Fleury for Murray when Fleury had one bad game against Ottawa in the third round after leading the Penguins past Columbus and Washington in the first two rounds. Sullivan called it his toughest decision as a coach. He had another difficult one to make in the Stanley Cup final after Murray gave up nine goals to Nashville in losses in Games 3 and 4. He stuck with Murray, who pitched shutouts in Games 5 and 6 to put both of their names on the Cup for the second consecutive season.

Murray was almost as good on this August night, making 26 saves. He made a terrific glove save on a redirect by Joel Armia early in the second period and had an even better stop on a shot by Tomas Tatar off a 2-on-1 break early in the third period, both coming when the Penguins led, 1-0. He had one more big save late on Brendan Gallagher to protect a 2-1 lead before Jake Guentzel secured the win with an empty-net goal.

Teammates raved about Murray’s performance, especially the save on Tatar after a breakdown by Brian Dumoulin set up the 2-on-1.

“That gets us going,” John Marino said of those kinds of saves.

“That’s huge,” Jason Zucker said. “That’s definitely a huge momentum booster for us. Every save he needed to make tonight, he did a great job. We’re going to need that throughout these playoffs.”

Only Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who also had a goal in the Game 1, was able to beat Murray. Murray stopped a shot by Artturi Lehkonen but left a rebound for one of the few times all night and Kotkaniemi jumped on it to cut the Penguins’ lead to 2-1 with 2:10 left. That’s how close Murray came to his seventh career postseason shutout. He gladly settled for his 29th career win against 19 losses.

“It’s not about getting shutouts at this time of year, really ever,” Murray said. “It’s about winning games. If one goes in, you just worry about the next one. That’s all you can do as a goalie.”

It helped that Murray’s teammates played much better in front of him than they did in the Game 1 loss. He faced just seven shots in the first period and six in the second before having to see 14 in the third.

“I thought our team did a great job, especially the D, but also the forwards blocking shots,” Murray said.

Now, it’s on to Game 3 Wednesday night.

Sullivan will have at least one easy decision before that game.