"He played unbelievable," Sidney Crosby said. "On the road and facing a team that's able to create the way they can and with the opportunities they had on the power play and stuff, he did a great job for us tonight all the way through."
The Penguins were outshot 51-28, earning the win thanks mostly to the play of their netminder, who made a career-high 50 saves in his first start since suffering an upper-body injury on Feb. 5 versus Carolina. Despite the heavy workload, Murray said his mindset never changed: do anything he could to stop the puck.
"When you're out there, you don't really think about that," Murray said of the shot totals. "You're just trying to stop the puck. You got to give them credit. I thought they played a really hard game. They're a really good team off the rush, hitting that late guy. They were doing that all night."
The Flyers entered the game as the hottest team in the league, riding a 10-game unbeaten streak (9-0-1). Going back even further, they were 10-1-1 since Jan. 9. They posed a huge challenge for the Pens and put Murray under siege all night, particularly in the middle frame.
But he was up to the challenge, setting a new franchise record for saves in a period with 28, surpassing the previous franchise mark of 25 recorded by Sebastien Caron on March 11, 2004 against Toronto.
"He was great, especially in the second period," Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said of Murray. "That's when the game got away from us a little bit. We couldn't seem to get out of our end zone. It was a long change period for us. Every time we put the puck in it seemed like we were changing.
"We couldn't turn the tide there in the second period and that's really where the shot discrepancy was, in that 20 minutes. And Matt was really good."
The Pens felt that Philadelphia's two power plays were the biggest reason they had so much momentum in that period.
"That obviously will inflate the shot totals a little bit," Murray said. "They have a good power play and they're really good off the rush. They're a dangerous team. You have to give them credit."
Murray also gave credit to his teammates, especially in the final minutes of play when the Pens were forced to kill off a match penalty given to Evgeni Malkin with 4:54 remaining.
"That's not easy, especially when we go down 6-on-4 and they pulled the goalie," Murray said.
But at the end of the night, Murray was the last line of defense and got the job done. It wasn't always pretty, but it was effective as he backstopped the Pens to a much-needed victory, ending their four-game winless streak.
"I thought our defensemen battled hard in front of him, but Matt was really good," Sullivan said. "He made some big saves for us. That's the type of game that he's capable of. He's a real good goalie."
