The Pittsburgh Penguins, a team with superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, lead the Washington Capitals, the best team in the NHL this season, 3-2 and can finish off their series at home on Tuesday evening. For this high-stakes game—one that could make or break their entire season—the Penguins will turn to Matt Murray, a rookie goaltender who has appeared in 13 regular-season games, rather than the veteran who helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 2009.  This probably sounds, well, insane—but that’s how good the 21-year-old Murray has been. He has six postseason wins with a 1.96 goal-against average, a .937 save percentage, several highlight-reel saves and a habit of shrugging at the pressure and scrutiny of playoff hockey.  No single player has as much power to lift or sink the fortunes of his teammates as the goalie, even when backed by scorers as formidable as Crosby and Malkin. Murray, who could end up with more career minutes in the playoffs than the regular season if the Penguins continue to advance, sounds as worried about all this as a guy swatting golf balls in the off-season.  “I just stick to how I’ve been going,” Murray said. “It’s not like this is my first time playing hockey.”  The Penguins could choose experience instead. On their bench sits Marc-Andre Fleury, who has not played since suffering his second concussion of the season in March. But Fleury says he is ready, and he was having one of the best seasons of his career before his injury. In 2009, when the Penguins won their last Stanley Cup, Fleury turned back the final shot of Game 7 with a diving body save.  Murray’s poise has made the decision easy for Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.  “That’s usually a bit of an acquired ability,” Sullivan said. “When I say Matt has maturity beyond his years, that’s what I mean.”  Murray turned heads when he stopped two breakaways from Alex Ovechkin. In Game 2, he held the Capitals to one goal. In Game 3, he made 47 stops and robbed T.J. Oshie with a glove save on a wrist shot from inches in front of the crease. In Game 4, Murray helped the Penguins win in overtime. He gave up three goals in Game 5 on just 19 shots, but two were on power plays and the other came after a sloppy Penguins turnover in front of the net.  Other young goalies have had playoff success as quickly as Murray, but not too often. He’s just the 10th goalie in NHL history, according to Stats LLC, to log more than 400 minutes in the playoffs after fewer than 1,000 minutes in his regular-season career. There are some big names on that list, though, including Andy Moog, Sean Burke and Ken Dryden, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy for the Montreal Canadiens in 1971 after playing just six regular-season games.  Murray, who is 6-foot-4 and lanky, was a highly regarded junior who initially struggled in the Ontario Hockey League. His stock dropped and the Penguins drafted him in the third round, with the 83rd overall pick, in 2012. Jon Elkin, the goalie coach for the Arizona Coyotes, helped to train a young Murray and also coached Murray in the OHL.  “He was playing maybe too much of a passive game,” Elkin said. “Then as a 19-year-old he really got moving, he started to battle and got more aggressive. His last year in the OHL, he really tore it up.”  Mike Buckley, the Penguins’ goalie development coach, said Murray used to be oblivious to his own talent.  “One of the first questions he asked me was, ‘What’s the East Coast Hockey League like?’” Buckley said. “I remember saying to him, ‘You will not be playing in that league.’”  In the AHL last year, Murray set the league record for consecutive shutout minutes (304) and was named the league’s goaltender and rookie of the year. He led the league in goals-against average (1.58) save percentage (.941) and shutouts (12).  He’s a smooth, efficient mover with a knack for reading plays and positioning.  “There’s no wasted movement,” Buckley said. “He creates speed by being poised.”  In Game 1, Ovechkin skated toward Murray after a neutral zone turnover. Murray quickly spotted Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley hustling to block Ovechkin’s backhand side. Murray held his ground and then slid to his left, making a pad save from point-blank range.  “It gives you a huge advantage if you’re able to read the play and get to your spots a little sooner,” Murray said.  Murray is athletic and wiry. He excelled at basketball as a kid in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and can crush a golf ball. He talks about his own saves and misses with distance, as if someone else was in the net and he just happened to be watching from the stands. He can’t point to a particular time—a eureka moment—when his goaltending suddenly started to click. He’s not even superstitious, rare among goalies, who are known for their eccentricities.  “Most of us, you look at us, and we’re a little bit off,” said Colin Zulianello, a schoolteacher and goaltending instructor who runs a camp in Thunder Bay where Murray has trained and, at times, coached. “You have to have a screw loose to want a piece of people hitting pucks at your head at 120 miles an hour. He doesn’t fit the mold of a quirky goaltender.”  Told of Zulianello’s assessment, Murray laughed. “That’s a compliment,” he said.
Despite having virtually no NHL experience, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray has thrived in the playoff pressure cooker