Wilkes Barre Goalie on Record Pace

While most of the news around the AHL has been team locations, the story in Wilkes Barre has been different. The Pittsburgh Penguins minor league affiliate has seen a record breaking performance out of their top goaltending prospect.

Matt Murray recently lost his record shutout streak of 304 minutes and 11 seconds for the Penguins. It was snapped by Springfield Falcons forward Dana Tyrell this past week, but not before Murray could make American Hockey League history.

He beat a pretty recent record and pretty much blew it out of the water. The previous streak was held in 2012 by Abbotsford Heat goaltender Barry Brust. That record had been 268 minutes and 17 seconds, so Murray beat it by nearly a game and a half more.

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Murray was a third round pick out of the 2012 draft to Pittsburgh and he is their top goaltending prospect. The 20 year old now has a total of nine shutouts on the season with a save percentage of .939% in his first pro hockey season.

Murray’s streak began on February 8th against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers after he allowed a goal in the third period. From there he went on to shutout the Sound Tigers later on, the Portland Pirates, Manchester Monarchs, Providence Bruins, and then lost his streak against Springfield but held the Falcons to just one goal in that conest.

Those affiliates he faced were farm systems of teams like Boston, the New York Islanders, and the Los Angeles Kings, so he was facing some pretty legitimate scoring prospects as well.

During this stretch of shutout, Murray stopped a whopping 130 shots that went his way. He currently leads the entire AHL with a goals against average of 1.57, and he also leads with his total of nine shutouts.

The Thunder Bay, Ontario native played his junior hockey career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In his last junior season, Murray was second in the Ontario Hockey League with 32 wins.

Murray is also a bronze medal winner from the 2011-2012 world junior championships with Team Canada. At 20 years old, he’s not quite ready for NHL action but at some point in the next two seasons could be a part of the Penguins plans.

The five straight wins thanks to Murray has led the Wilkes Barre Penguins to a playoff spot as of now with 74 points and they are in fourth place in the conference. They have as many points as the Syracuse Crunch, who lead their division.

Murray has made history, but this won’t be the last time we hear his name.