Murray leads Penguins to another win

Associated Press

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray tries to keep it simple. Show up for work. Try to improve a little bit each day. Don’t get too high or too low.

It’s highly effective for a player who has regained his confidence and swagger just in time to re-establish his team as one of the league’s best.

Murray stopped 36 shots in a 5-1 victory over Florida on Tuesday night to improve to 8-0 since returning from a lower-body injury. Shaky and uncertain in October and November, the 24-year-old has responded with the arguably the best stretch of his career, heady territory considering he already has a pair of Stanley Cup rings.

Murray has a 1.24 goals-against average and a .966 save percentage during the unbeaten run that began on Dec. 15. While occasionally sloppy play by his teammates kept Murray plenty busy against the Panthers, he hardly appeared bothered while pushing the Penguins to their ninth win in their last 10 games.

“It’d be nice to have a few more games where you don’t give them that many grade-A chances where guys are in all alone and forcing him to make the saves he had to make consistently,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who picked up his 20th goal of the season. “But it was one of those games he played great again.”

Murray was 4-5-1 with a 4.08 goals against in his first 11 appearances. Casey Florida’s Roberto Luongo surrendered goals to Tanner Pearson and Bryan Rust in the first game’s first 3:03 was pulled after giving up four goals over the first 29 minutes, including short-handed scores by Rust and Riley Sheahan in the second that pushed Pittsburgh’s advantage to 4-0. Luongo finished with 12 saves on 16 shots before being removed in favor of James Reimer.

Aaron Ekblad’s goal late in the second period gave him 62 in his career — the most ever by a Florida defenseman — but the Panthers never recovered from the early deficit.

NOTES

The last time the Penguins had multiple short-handed goals in a game was on March 29, 2016 against Buffalo. ... Florida fell to 9-11-2 on the road. ... Pittsburgh F Patric Hornqvist left in the first period and did not return after getting hit with a puck. ... Crosby has 20 goals in 12 seasons, tying a franchise record set held by team owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux.