Matt Murray not only made 27 saves for his second straight shutout as the Pittsburgh Penguins became the first team in nearly two decades to repeat as Stanley Cup champions Sunday night. But by doing so, he accomplished something no other goalie in NHL history had done.
Murray, 23, became the first goalie to win not one, but two Stanley Cups as a rookie after being a late-season call up a year ago who didn't play enough games to get that tag removed. That's something neither Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden nor Cam Ward ever managed.
Murray, who came back from injury and replaced Marc-Andre Fleury for Game 3 in the Eastern Conference finals, finished these finals by shutting out Nashville for the final 126 minutes, 52 seconds, and set a rookie record with two shutouts in the Final. "I just wanted to get it done, to be honest,'' Murray said. "Didn't want to get ahead of myself, just one shot at a time. The team played great in front of me, and we got it done in the last minute.''
The Predators thought they had finally beaten Murray for the first goal of the game, only to have referee Kevin Pollock wave it off because he had whistled the play dead when he lost sight of the puck. Colton Sissons tapped the puck into the net 67 seconds into the second period behind Murray's back. Officials huddled, but the goal was not allowed.
Murray also stopped Sissons on a breakaway midway through the second and also gloved a shot from Viktor Arvidsson later in the period. Murray and the Penguins also killed off 32 seconds of a 5-on-3 at 8:47 of the third after Trevor Daley punched Ryan Ellis with Olli Maatta already in the box for tripping. Murray made a big stop on a shot by Mattias Ekholm followed by a save on Arvidsson.
Murray became only the fourth goalie to close out the Stanley Cup Final with shutouts in consecutive games, and the first since Terry Sawchuk did it in 1952 for the Detroit Red Wings.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.