Murray Making Big Saves at Key Times

Better and better.

That's one of the mantras Penguins goalie coach Mike Buckley has for his netminders, and it's something they've taken to heart. Listen to their interviews with the media, and you'll hear Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry use that phrase time and time again.

Right now, it's a perfect description of Murray's play between the pipes for the Penguins in their Qualifying Round against the Montreal Canadiens.

Murray was solid in Game 1 on Saturday, where he allowed two early goals but rebounded to come up with several key stops at crucial moments as the Penguins battled back to tie the score before eventually falling in overtime, 3-2.

It was certainly a performance Murray could build on, and the 26-year-old did just that. He was even better against the Canadiens in Game 2 on Tuesday - magnificent, really - coming up with even more key stops at crucial moments in Pittsburgh's 3-1 win.

"He's come up big for us before and we have a lot of confidence in him to keep doing that for us," defenseman John Marino said. "When he makes those big saves, it's a big confidence booster for us on the bench, too. It's a big team motivator. It gets us going. It's been great."

Murray is a two-time Stanley Cup champion for a reason. He's shown an ability to be at his best when the stakes are high, and that's exactly what he did to help his team even the best-of-five series.

"I thought he was real solid again tonight," Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. "There weren't a ton of scoring chances in the first couple of periods. Montreal pushed hard down the stretch and they generated a couple of high-quality chances. Matt made some big saves.

"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."

The Penguins opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game, and from there, they dominated. They generated a bunch of good scoring chances, but as time ticked by, they had nothing to show for it - partly because Carey Price was being Carey Price, and partly because they were struggling to finish. So despite their strong play, it felt like Murray might have to be perfect in order for them to get the win.

"We felt pretty good about our game, we were generating good chances, but I think they still had that push," Sidney Crosby said. "They still had a few chances. Murr had to make some big saves, especially in the third there."

In the first two periods, Murray's stops included a glove save on a re-direct attempt by Joel Armia and a stick save to deny Tomas Tatar on a chance off the rush. But his best save came just 14 seconds into that final frame.

That's when Tatar had another golden opportunity on a 2-on-1, but Murray read the play perfectly and knocked his shot away.

"That's huge," winger Jason Zucker said. "That's definitely a huge momentum booster for us. Every save that he needed to make, he did a great job. I thought he battled hard, made some great plays. We're going to need that throughout these playoffs."

The Canadiens continued to pusbh, and Murray continued to deny them, allowing his teammates to keep grinding away in hopes of getting that next goal - and Zucker finally did at the 14:41 mark of the third.

And while Montreal did manage to get one past Murray with just 2:09 left to ruin what would have been a well-deserved shutout, he couldn't care less about that aspect. All he cared about was getting the win, and win they did.

"I think it's a next-shot mentality," Murray said. "That's all you can do. It's not about getting shutouts at this time of year. Or really ever. It's about winning games."