{"id":14132,"date":"2016-04-25T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/surprise-goaltenders-make-big-impacts-on-playoffs-1st-round\/"},"modified":"2016-04-25T08:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:00:46","slug":"surprise-goaltenders-make-big-impacts-on-playoffs-1st-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/surprise-goaltenders-make-big-impacts-on-playoffs-1st-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise goaltenders make big impacts on playoffs’ 1st round"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> Michal Neuvirth, Thomas Greiss and Martin Jones were sitting on the bench as playoff backups a year ago. Jeff Zatkoff and Matt Murray were in the minors.<\/p>\n

Yet all five goaltenders have been difference makers in the first round of this year\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

Neuvirth has singlehandedly gotten the Flyers back into their series, Thomas Greiss has been a rock for the Islanders, Jones beat his former team to lead the San Jose Sharks into the second round and Zatkoff held down the fort before Murray returned from injury to get the Penguins back on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve bounced around, they\u2019ve been traded, they had to do their due diligence behind other goalies that are high caliber,\u201d analyst Justin Goldman of the Goalie Guild said. \u201cJust the patience that they\u2019ve had, continuing to grind it out day in and day out and then when they get that opportunity, making the most of it, that\u2019s what puts them in that upper echelon. That\u2019s what makes them playoff performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neuvirth\u2019s emergence has had the biggest impact. A lower-body injury limited him to two games since March 4 before replacing Steve Mason with Philadelphia trailing the Washington Capitals 3-0 in the series, yet Neuvirth has stopped 75 of 76 shots, including all 44 on Friday, to force a Game 6 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave us life,\u201d Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. \u201cWe were down 3-0 and at home he played really solid and Game 5, it\u2019s more than solid. He was on his game. He\u2019s been like that all year for us. We\u2019re happy he\u2019s on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals drafted and developed Neuvirth before trading him to the Buffalo Sabres when it was clear that Braden Holtby was their goalie of the future. The Sabres traded him to the Islanders for journeyman goaltender Chad Johnson before Neuvirth found a new home with the Flyers on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s back in the playoffs where he has been at his best. Counting the Ontario Hockey League, American Hockey League and NHL, Neuvirth is 15-1 in playoff series that he starts at least three games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just like playing in the playoffs and like playing under pressure,\u201d Neuvirth said. \u201cI know I could play good in the playoffs and (I\u2019m) just playing with confidence and belief in myself and (I) trust what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hextall described Neuvirth as a \u201ccalming influence.\u201d The same can be said of Greiss, who has taken the reins for the Islanders since Jaroslav Halak went out with an injury and whose .938 save percentage is a major reason New York leads the Florida Panthers three games to two.<\/p>\n

Greiss is on his fourth NHL organization and has never before been relied on like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has mostly been a backup in his career, and he is getting a shot now and he\u2019s playing great hockey,\u201d Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Jones played good enough in his first playoff series in the NHL to help the Sharks knock off the Los Angeles Kings in five games. San Jose coach Peter DeBoer complimented Jones as a goalie who never gets rattled, which is just what that team needed.<\/p>\n

The Sharks saw enough in Jones to trade for him and make him the starter, but after years behind Jonathan Quick in Los Angeles, he had to get the job done after a strong regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you really know what you have with a starting goalie in the playoffs until he\u2019s had the success,\u201d Goldman said in a phone interview Saturday. \u201cYou can project and you can predict and you can do the statistical analysis all you want, but until he\u2019s thrown into the fire and he\u2019s put in that situation, he\u2019s had a chance to prove in real time what he can do, he\u2019s still going to be a little bit of an unknown entity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray and Zatkoff weren\u2019t unknown entities based on their successes in the AHL, but Pittsburgh would\u2019ve liked to have had starter Marc-Andre Fleury against the Rangers. Instead, Zatkoff made 35 saves to win Game 1 and Murray got victories in Games 3 and 4.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Murray was stellar down the stretch for the Penguins, but like with Greiss and Jones, no one really knew what to expect from him in the postseason. The experience of being handed the net late in the season helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone can predict the situations he\u2019s been thrown into,\u201d Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot to be thrown at a young goalie. I think he\u2019s handled it really well. He\u2019s shown a ton of poise. He\u2019s got confidence in himself and he\u2019s really competitive. I think that\u2019s allowed him to play the way he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 AP sports writers Vin A. Cherwoo, Josh Dubow and Will Graves contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Michal Neuvirth, Thomas Greiss and Martin Jones were sitting on the bench as playoff backups a year ago. Jeff Zatkoff and Matt Murray were in the minors. Yet all five goaltenders have been difference makers in the first round of this year\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs. Neuvirth has singlehandedly gotten the Flyers back into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":14133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14132"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}