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Oilers play well, still lose as Penguins’ Murray shuts the door

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The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Edmonton Oilers behind another strong performance from goaltender Matt Murray with 35 saves. Bryan Rust scored a shorthanded goal in the second period to put PIT up for good.

When you’re a team that scores few goals, even a pretty good effort of a given night can be unraveled by a momentary lapse on the ice.

The Edmonton Oilers put in that pretty good effort on Wednesday Night Hockey on NBCSN but still came away with the loss, 3-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And the reason for that was a roughly four-minute stretch in the second period where they stopped doing what had made them successful in the rest of the game. The Oilers owned possession in the first and second periods (53 percent in the first; 70 percent in the second) and came up with a 1-0 lead in the first when Connor McDavid slid a cross-ice pass to Leon Draisaitl.

That lead lasted until early in the second when the Oilers just stopped defending while on the power play. The laziness that ensued produced a short-handed goal for Bryan Rust, who shouldn’t have been allowed the time he had to tuck the puck past Mikko Koskinen.

The 2-1 goal came when no one picked up a streaking Teddy Blueger through the slot. A tough rebound off Koskinen produced a juicy rebound and just like that, the Oilers trailed.

Matt Murray produced another solid outing after he stopped a career-high 50 shots in a 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

Murray had to come up big again, stopping 38 shots, including a penalty shot from none other than McDavid (who is now 1-for-3 in those situations in his career).

Murray was on point again nearing the mid-way point of the third when he stretched out to stop McDavid once again.

This Matt Murray is the unbeatable Matt Murray that could lift the Penguins into the playoffs by himself down the stretch here if he keeps playing like this.

Speaking of playoffs and down the stretch run, the Penguins picked up two big points and are now three clear (67 points) of the Carolina Hurricanes (64 points) for the final wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Pittsburgh came into the game 1-3-1 in their past five games and just four wins in their past 12. The Penguins were without Evgeni Malkin (serving his one-game suspension for attempted decapitation) and Olli Maatta (who is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury).

The Oilers, meanwhile, are beginning to fall behind in the turtle derby. They’ve lost eight of their past nine contests and sit six points back of the Minnesota Wild for the final wildcard spot in the west. And there’s the loggiest of logjams in front of them queueing up for what appears to be quite the race to the finish line.

Weird stat via the NHL: McDavid is 0-3-3 against the Penguins when Sidney Crosby is in the lineup.


Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck