Minnesota Wild head coach Dean Evason questioned why Matt Murray did not receive any repercussion after the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender’s net came off its moorings three separate times during Friday’s contest.
Evason believes one incident in particular wasn’t an accident and added that Wild goaltending coach Frederic Chabot said it’s a “trend” with Murray.
“You can’t knock the net off three times and not get anything out of it,” Evason told reporters after his team fell 4-3 to Toronto. “It doesn’t make any sense. We have offensive time in there and sustained time. We could get more opportunities and all of a sudden, it stalled out and momentum’s gone and whatever. I don’t understand it.”
Murray, who made 25 saves to improve to a 4-1-1 record on the season, had no idea why his net kept coming loose.
“I don’t know what was going on there,” Murray said. “I use the net to push off all the time. For whatever reason tonight it just came off a little bit easier.”
The first instance took place early in the second period when the Wild were pressuring on a 3-on-2 opportunity. As Mats Zuccarello passed the puck to Calen Addison near the crease, Murray pushed off of the right post and dislodged the net.
It was the second one that Evason cited during his post-game interview. Three minutes into the third period, Wild defenceman Jacob Middleton fired a shot from the blue line. As the puck was redirected, Murray pushed off of the right post and the net came off again.
While Murray was blocking a one-timer from Kiril Kaprizov with 4:15 remaining in the game, the 28-year-old goalie knocked the goal post off once more.
Toronto (12-5-5) is second in the Atlantic Division and continues its road trip Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Minnesota (9-9-2) is sixth in the Central Division and next plays host to the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.