Colorado Avalanche ride two goalies into Stanley Cup Final

Matt Murray stepped on the ice on the first day of the 2017 NHL playoffs ready to lead the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup once again. He didn’t make it to puck drop.

An injury during warmups sidelined him for a month and turned the job over to Marc-Andre Fleury. Murray returned more than a month later and backstopped the Penguins to another title.

Five years later, Murray watches the Colorado Avalanche knowing how it feels to be Darcy Kuemper, who could be in net for the Stanley Cup Final after missing most of the third round and giving way to backup Pavel Francouz.

One of just five teams in league history to have two different goaltenders win at least five games during a playoff run, the Avalanche are attempting to join Murray’s Penguins, the 1972 Boston Bruins and 1969 Montreal Canadiens as the only champions that split duties in the crease.

“I know from firsthand experience how difficult it can be to jump in when you haven’t played in a while and when you weren’t necessarily expecting to play that much,” Murray said. “What Kuemper was doing is obviously very impressive but also extremely impressive what Francouz has done, as well. You just try to be ready as much as you can.”

Much like Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia in 2010, Colorado’s situation has been determined by injuries. Kuemper took an inadvertent stick to the eye through his mask during the first round and was again replaced by Francouz midway through the opener of the Western Conference Final when he didn’t feel right.

Kuemper and Francouz have now each won six games this postseason. The Avalanche need four more victories for the franchise’s third championship and first since 2001, and coach Jared Bednar won’t tip his hand on who’s starting Game 1 of the final next week.

“It’s a tough decision,”

Bednar said.

Needing to decide between Kuemper, Colorado’s starter all year, and Francouz, who’s a perfect 6-0, is one of the drawbacks to a two-goalie rotation in the playoffs.

“It’s a good situation to have two goalies, but it’s a bad situation to be thinking, ‘Which goalie should we start?’” said Michael Leighton, who won eight games to Brian Boucher’s six during the Flyers’ run to the final in 2010. “That’s a tough situation for the coaches and for the team because sometimes a team is playing better in front of one goalie and not the other, so you’ve got to make the right decision on putting the goalie in that’s going to help you win.”