Perhaps no Pittsburgh Penguins have served as lightning rods for the fan base more than goalie Matt Murray and defenseman Jack Johnson, and both were being blamed for a three-goal, first-period deficit against the Boston Bruins.
Murray and Johnson took their share of abuse in the first five minutes Sunday afternoon, first from the Bruins and then from the crowd of 18,655 at PPG Paints Arena. How they turned jeers to cheers for a 4-3 comeback victory over the Bruins — in what is being billed as their best win of the season — had Penguins coach Mike Sullivan praising both.
Where Murray (15-6-4) has endured his share of struggles and lost playing time to Tristan Jarry (16-7-1), Johnson has been elevated from healthy scratch in the playoffs last season to the top defense pairing because of injuries to Brian Dumoulin and Justin Schultz this season.
“I’m thrilled for them because I know how much these guys care, how hard they work and how good of teammates they are,” Sullivan said. “It’s a hard game out there. It doesn’t always go your way. This game is a game of mistakes. Everybody’s going to make them. It’s just about trying to react the right way to them, and those guys did.”
But it didn’t exactly turn frowns upside down.
When asked if he heard the Bronx cheers from the crowd and how he tuned that out, Murray bit his lip and averted his eyes.
“No comment,” Murray said.
Penguins goalie Matt Murray’s response says everything about what he thought of the crowd reaction at PPG Paints Arena after the Boston Bruins scored two goals in the first two minutes. pic.twitter.com/5dVhaTx27B
— Kevin Gorman (@KGorman_Trib) January 19, 2020
That spoke volumes. The Penguins beat the Bruins for the first time this season, not even three days after a 4-1 loss in Boston. The Penguins also closed the gap in the Eastern Conference standings, trailing the second-place Bruins (68 points) by a point going into Tuesday’s game at the Philadelphia Flyers before the All-Star break.
Murray had every right to be disgusted by how quickly the home crowd turned on him after allowing a Patrice Bergeron goal 11 seconds after the opening faceoff, then another by Anders Bjork at 2:02. Penguins fans can be unforgiving, even for Stanley Cup-champion goalies. (See: Fleury, Marc-Andre).
And they can be stupid, too.
“Unfortunately, he heard a bit from the crowd early on in the game, but he stuck with it,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “That’s not easy for a goalie when you hear it at home from your own fans, so I’m happy for him. I’m glad we were able to get back into it and give them something to cheer about.”
To say Murray wouldn’t allow another goal isn’t entirely accurate, though the next one was no fault of his own.
That’s where Johnson comes in. The Bruins were skating circles around the Penguins, quite literally, when David Pastrnak spun and shot toward the net with Brad Marchand stationed at the right post. Johnson stuck his blade in the crease to intercept the puck, but it deflected off his stick and between Murray’s legs.
“I had a pretty good feeling like he was just going to try to throw it against the goal line to the guy on the back side there,” Johnson said. “You try and stop it, maybe lay it in the pads there. You don’t want it to go through, and you can’t deflect it out in the slot. That’s a tough bounce.”
And a tough mistake to swallow, as the Bruins took a 3-0 lead.
Where the fans were furious, Murray was more understanding.
“He’s trying to make the right play and gets a bad bounce, and it ends up going in,” Murray said, “so you just move past it.”
Crosby started the comeback with a behind-the-net pass to Dominik Simon, who found the net from a ridiculous angle from the right side of the goal line to make it 3-1 at 15:07 of the first. Crosby later dropped a beautiful between-the-legs pass to Teddy Blueger to cut it to 3-2 just 33 seconds into the second period.
It was only 20 seconds into the third period when defenseman Kris Letang was called for elbowing, putting the Penguins on the penalty kill. That set up Johnson’s heroics, as he scored a short-handed goal to tie the score at 1:41.
The Penguins got a three-on-two rush, with Brandon Tanev floating along the right boards as Blueger cleared a defenseman on a center drive until Johnson was open in the high slot. Tanev set Johnson up for a slap shot from the top of the left circle that he drilled past goalie Jaroslav Halak.
“It always feels great to help the team,” Johnson said, “no matter what you’re doing, whether it’s killing penalties, making a hit to get the team going or scoring a goal.”
His fiery fist pump told another story. It was one of redemption, as the shorty gave the Penguins the momentum. Not only had the Bruins blown a three-goal lead, but the NHL’s third-best penalty-killing unit had just allowed a short-hander to a stay-at-home defenseman for his third goal of the season.
“That was awesome, a huge goal for us,” Murray said. “He played great for us. Everybody else did, too.”
No one played better in the third period than Murray, even as the Penguins got the go-ahead goal when Evgeni Malkin set up Bryan Rust for a 4-3 lead at 12:35. Murray stopped 14 shots, including one in the slot by defenseman Matt Grzelcyk and a wrister by forward Jake DeBrusk.
“I was thrilled because Jack gets a great goal, a tying goal and Matt made some dynamite saves in the third period,” Sullivan said. “We don’t win the game if Matt doesn’t make those saves.”
Make no mistake, the two players who took blame for putting the Penguins in a three-goal hole also dug them out of it. That Murray and Johnson moved past the jeers to draw cheers made beating the Bruins that much better.
Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
Nate Smallwood | Tribune-Review
Penguins’ goaltender Matt Murray prior to their game against the Boston Bruins at PPG Paints Arena on Jan. 19, 2020.
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