B2B Rewind: Playoffs begin

This article is an abbreviated excerpt from the book: Pittsburgh Penguins Back-to-Back Champions. This article is part three of a 12-part series complimenting AT&T SportsNet's re-airing of the 2016 and '17 Stanley Cup Final victories by the Penguins.
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Jeff Zatkoff was at his apartment in downtown Pittsburgh's Strip District when he received a text from Marc-Andre Fleury, and a phone call from goaltending coach Mike Bales, that both contained the same message. He would be making his NHL playoff debut as the Penguins' starting netminder in Game 1 of the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the NY Rangers.
Zatkoff had been relegated to No. 3 on the team's depth chart when the Penguins recalled Matt Murray from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Feb. 27, exactly one week after Zatkoff would get what ended up being his last start of the regular season.
The only game action Zatkoff saw in the 52 days between Feb. 20 and April 13 ended up being 42 minutes in the Penguins' 4-2 loss to Philadelphia on April 9, when he relieved an injured Murray and allowed two goals on 24 shots.
Overall, he had made just 14 appearances the whole season, the entirety of which he had spent in Pittsburgh - meaning he hadn't even gotten the chances to play games in Wilkes-Barre. And now, he was expected to take the net against the team which had eliminated the Penguins each of the last two postseasons, with Henrik Lundqvist at the other end, the Goliath to his David.
Zatkoff couldn't sleep while trying to get in his game day nap. His nerves only intensified as the puck drop drew closer. But once the game began, the nerves dissolved, and Zatkoff said it really did feel just like any other game. Unfortunately, his teammates couldn't say the same, as they looked shaky and lost in their own zone at the start. The Rangers sensed this, and tried to take advantage as best they could, firing nine shots at Zatkoff within the first five minutes.
"I got some shots early on. They were throwing a lot at the net," Zatkoff said. "When they found out I was playing they knew I hadn't seen a lot of hockey lately. They probably wanted to get me into the game. Fortunately, I was able to settle in a little bit."

He was able to turn aside all of those shots with clutch save after clutch save, thus allowing his team to settle in along with him and eventually get the first goal off the stick of Patric Hornqvist with 17.6 seconds left to play in the first period. Zatkoff made another huge save with just under four minutes left in the second, when he robbed Viktor Stalberg on what was essentially a 4-on-1 for the Rangers to keep them off the board. Sidney Crosby scored on a breakaway with 1:04 remaining in the middle frame to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead.
The Rangers made it 2-1 on a two-man advantage in the third period, but the Penguins pulled away shortly after. Hornqvist ended up with a hat trick, getting the empty-netter with 2:50 left. As the clock ticked closer to 0:00, Penguins fans got on their feet and alternated chants of "ZATKOFF! ZATKOFF!" with "JEFF! JEFF!" They knew they wouldn't be cheering at all if it wasn't for the unbelievable play of the goaltender, who somehow dug deep and came up with the game of his life despite extenuating circumstances. The rust, the pressure, the stage - none of that mattered on this night.
Two months later, as the Penguins drank from the Stanley Cup in the locker room at SAP Center, Zatkoff began a chant about…himself. "MR. GAME 1! MR. GAME 1!" It was the performance of his life.
Unfortunately, all fairy tales must come to an end, as the definition of once-in-a-lifetime performance is that they don't happen again. Zatkoff inevitably came back down to earth for Game 2, a 4-2 Rangers win that tied the series at 1-1.
But the Penguins would make a switch in goal for Game 3 at Madison Square Garden as Matt Murray was medically cleared of a concussion. He would only have one practice and one morning skate before taking over.
"Coming off of one practice and a morning skate after 10 days, that's not an ideal situation," he said. "But I just tried to go in and kind of have fun with it. I mean, that's all you can do at that point, is not worry about it and just have fun."
Fun probably isn't the word anyone would have used to describe Murray's performance that night. More like calm, composed and confident, as Murray, who became the youngest player in Penguins postseason history to start a game at 21 years and 330 days, made 16 saves in his NHL playoff debut.

Murray, the youngest player on the roster, handled his end of the ice. Down at the other, Matt Cullen, the oldest player on the roster, came up with a huge goal of his own. The play began just over four minutes into the third period, when Ian Cole banked the puck off the boards up into the neutral zone, and Tom Kuhnhackl whacked it to Cullen.
Cullen reached out and tried to poke the puck through a pair of Rangers defenders, who collided into each other. It took a fortuitous bounce, leaving the veteran forward with time, space and the puck on his stick. He went in alone on Lundqvist, snapping a shot through his pads that hit the padding along the bottom of the net so loudly you heard a huge "THUNK!" It gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead just four minutes into the third period and they held on, 3-1 final, to take a 2-1 series lead. In Game 4, a motivated Malkin, who returned from injury in Game 2, completely broke out. He ended up with two goals - both on the power play - and two assists to help lead the Penguins to a 5-0 win and a 3-1 series lead.
Heading into Game 5, a feeling of déjà vu washed over a few of the players who had been on the roster just two years earlier when the Rangers erased a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate the Penguins. That was certainly a learning experience for the players who went through it. But the interesting thing is that there weren't many of them left. This group was so different, as just Crosby, Malkin, Kris Letang and Chris Kunitz were the skaters left remaining from that 2014 series. And they were determined not to let any ghosts of playoffs past haunt them.
"You look up and down the lineup and there's a lot of new faces, lot of new players, new staff," said winger Carl Hagelin, who was a member of the Rangers that season. "I don't think anyone's thinking back. It's all about looking forward. We're a confident group and we have to be ready for the challenge we have."
Phil Kessel, acquired from Toronto in a blockbuster deal that previous summer, was one of those new faces. The Penguins acquired him for his unique blend of blazing speed, scoring ability and his second-to-none shot. He put all of those on display 11 minutes and 39 seconds into the first period with the Penguins down 2-1.
Kessel received a pass in stride from Crosby in the neutral zone. He flew down the wing, shifted his weight to his right foot and let it rip. The puck flew into the far side of the net, just over Lundqvist's stick and blocker. It turned out to be the first of five unanswered goals for the Penguins en route to a 6-3 win and a trip to the Second Round. As Crosby said of Kessel after the game, "He can change the game with one shot."

There had been a lot of talk around the Penguins' previous collapses against the Rangers, but once they got through Game 1, it was a matter of when, not if, the Penguins would close out the series. They were, as Daft Punk sings, harder, better, faster and stronger in every aspect.
The Penguins completely overwhelmed the Rangers with their speed and skill, while Murray outplayed one of his childhood heroes. Lundqvist, nicknamed the King, had been truly majestic each of the previous two years, allowing just one goal in each of the final three games of both series. But the cracks in his composure that had been starting to show back in March split wide open.
Lundqvist was pulled from that game, and getting yanked from his net was something that happened regularly during the First Round.
While he left in Game 1 with an injury after taking a stick to the eye from teammate Marc Staal, Lundqvist was pulled four minutes into the second period of Game 4 after allowing four goals, and was pulled after the second period of Game 5 after allowing six.
The Penguins had finally dethroned the mighty Lundqvist, and his kingdom fell with him.
The article was edited and condensed by Sam Kasan.