The Pittsburgh Penguins locked up goaltender Matt Murray on a three-year, $11.25-million contract extension Thursday, the team announced.

The 22-year-old inked the deal, which will pay him an annual average of $3.75 million, after proving his worth in his first real taste of the NHL last season.

The club's third-round pick in 2012 made his debut playing in 13 regular season games, posting a 9-2-0 record with a 2.00 goals-against average and .930 save percentage.

However, it's in the postseason where Murray proved he could be the Penguins' goalie of the future. The Thunder Bay, Ontario, native carried Pittsburgh to a Stanley Cup win thanks to a 15-6 record with a 2.08 goals-against average and .923 save percentage.

Murray, who's recovering from a broken hand suffered while backstopping Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey, had his first practice with the team since going down with the injury on Wednesday, and, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie, should be in game shape within the next couple of weeks.

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The Experts Series is a multi-part project which delves into the mindset of athletes who've reached the pinnacle of their profession, offering insight on the philosophy and fundamentals that led to their most memorable moments.​

The Moment

Michigan Stadium holds attendance records for NCAA football, NCAA hockey, and for a soccer game played in the United States.

The announced attendance for the 2014 NHL Winter Classic between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings at The Big House was 105,491 - shattering the previous record for attendance at an NHL game by more than 30,000 fans.

Sixty minutes were not enough to decide a winner in that game, nor were the five minutes of 4-on-4 that followed.

Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings and Joffrey Lupul of the Maple Leafs exchanged tallies in the shootout to leave the teams level through four shooters. When Jonathan Bernier denied Tomas Tatar on the Red Wings' third attempt, the fate of both sides was planted firmly on the stick of Leafs center Tyler Bozak.

"To be honest, I was pretty nervous," Bozak told theScore. "I don't really get nervous in those situations, but it was a big game. And it was for the win."

Bozak started out wide to the right, moved back to the middle of the ice and snapped a low shot past Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard's blocker, finding the twine.

"The amount of fans that were there. It was snowing. It was a pretty special moment," Bozak said. "I'd have to say I was pretty nervous, but once you grab the puck and start going down, you forget about all that and it just comes back to normal."

The Philosophy

Bozak has established himself as one of the NHL's premier shootout specialists during his time in the league. Entering the 2016-17 season, he'd converted on 14-of-35 attempts.

While many shootout artists like to go into their attempts with a gameplan, Bozak prefers to let the situation dictate his method of attack and take what the goaltender gives him.

"I don't really set up a move, or anything before I go down," he said.

"I just try to come with some speed, push the goalie back in the net, take a look and see what's open and try and pick a spot and shoot it there."

With the NHL adopting 3-on-3 overtime for the 2015-16 season, shootouts have made fewer appearances at NHL rinks, but a shooter's ability to beat a goaltender 1-on-1 remains as valuable a skill as ever.

Bozak has found a style that works for him, but he understands there are multiple methods of attacking these situations.

"Everyone's different," Bozak said. "Some guys have really good hands and great moves with dekes. For me, I think the chances of me scoring are a lot better if I shoot, rather than deke. There's a lot more room for error when you go in and then try to put a move on the goalie."

While Bozak prefers to keep things simple, he understands that the shooter's ability to influence the goaltender's positioning has always been the key to a successful scoring attempt.

"I think you mainly have to read the goalie," Bozak said. "If I come in and he's out really far it's gonna be tough to beat him with a shot in certain areas. If he's out far, if I'm gonna shoot it, it'll probably be 5-hole. Or you have to deke.

"But if I'm able to come in with a lot of speed and then slow down, it pushes him back in the net and then you have a lot more area to shoot at."

Previous editions of The Experts Series

Mike Weir on putting under pressure
Mike Weir on winning on golf's biggest stage
Kelly Gruber on what it takes to hit for the cycle
Tyler Bozak on the art of the faceoff
Wendel Clark on what it means to wear the 'C'

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Winnipeg Jets fans were unkind to Auston Matthews in his first visit to MTS Centre, mercilessly hollering the name of the top two draft pick they believe is the better player throughout.

And they were correct in their assessment, at least on Wednesday night, as their No. 2 overall selection Patrik Laine scored a hat trick in a thrilling come-from-behind overtime victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But for their shouts, and the first glimpse of hostile territory they provided Matthews in his brief history in the NHL, they don't have the Maple Leafs star dreading his next visit to Winnipeg.

"You just got to block it out, have fun with it," Matthews told TSN's Mark Masters of the deafening "Laine's better!" chants heard throughout the third period.

"Winnipeg is a great hockey city, so that's what you get when you go to play these types of teams."

Matthews had a glorious opportunity to net a silencer in overtime, but struck the pad of Michael Hutchinson on his breakaway. The puck then immediately was sent up ice, where Laine, the preferred choice in Winnipeg, collected and fired his third goal of the game into the roof of the net.

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Patrik Laine successfully suppressed the emotion bubbling underneath the surface when he met with reporters after scoring a hat-trick goal in overtime to defeat the team that decided in June that another prospect - Auston Matthews - was more talented than him.

But we can hazard a guess at how he really feels.

Or better yet, we can turn to Mark Scheifele.

"He should be over the moon right now," Scheifele told reporters.

Laine called the moment "amazing," and couldn't help but chuckle to himself after labeling it a "normal regular-season game," but balked at attempts to lead him into admitting that he relished this performance even more because it came against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It's always nice to score," he said. "Everyone knows that. It's the best league in the world, and I scored three goals. It was amazing to help my team win with those goals.

"It was so cool."

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"Laine's better!"

The chants reverberated true at MTS Centre on Wednesday night.

Patrik Laine outshone Auston Matthews in the first meeting between the top two selections from last summer's draft, completing a hat trick in overtime with a bullet shot over the shoulder of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen.

Factoring in Matthews' miss on a breakaway literally seconds prior, this highlight will live on reels throughout the season. But there was much more in Laine's performance on the big stage, on a night when Winnipeg erased a four-goal deficit for the first time in franchise history.

The No. 2 pick, suddenly tight-lipped after telling everyone he was the better prospect throughout the draft process, had fans taunting Matthews after his first goal on a tremendous turnaround snipe one minute into the third period. Then after Mark Scheifele brought the Jets to within one in a final frame dominated by the Jets, Laine clapped in the game-tying goal on the power play with 55 seconds left.

With his hat trick, Laine has tied Matthews, who has one assist since scoring four times in his NHL debut, in both goals and points in the rookie scoring race, making certain his name is included when raving about the immense talent taking over the NHL.

"Both of those players are special," Scheifele told Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun. "I guess it was Laine's turn today."

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NEW YORK - Jimmy Howard made 32 saves to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

Thomas Vanek and Drew Miller scored for Detroit, which improved to 2-2-0.

After beginning the season with two straight losses, the Red Wings have won consecutive games.

And they have Howard to thank for their latest win as New York had the better of play for wide stretches. The Rangers outshot Detroit 33-18 for the game and Howard was forced into making highlight reel stops to keep the Red Wings in the game.

New York led 1-0 as Mika Zibanejad redirected Ryan McDonagh's slap shot from the right point past Howard 1:09 into the game. The Rangers carried the 1-0 lead into the first intermission, following an opening 20 minutes in which they outshot the Red Wings 14-7.

Zibanejad's goal accounted for all of New York's offense, and the Rangers have alternated wins and losses through their first four games.

Their lead could have been larger as Jimmy Vesey and Brady Skjei had shots that hit goal posts late in the first, and Michael Grabner, Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello all misfired on quality scoring chances in the first three minutes of the second period.

New York's inability to convert and Howard's play proved costly when Vanek tied the game 6:15 into the second with a power-play goal.

The game remained tied until 59 seconds into the third period. Luke Glendening's forecheck forced Henrik Lundqvist into committing a turnover behind his net, and Miller fired a shot into the net before the New York goaltender could fully recover for his first goal of the season.

Jester Fast appeared to tie the game with 3:38 left in regulation by redirecting Kevin Klein's shot from the point, but the goal was immediately disallowed as the New York wing had played it with a high stick.

Lundqvist made 16 saves on 18 shots.

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Off the board second. On the scoreboard first.

In the first in-game meeting between No. 1 and No. 2 overall draft picks Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, it was the Winnipeg Jets sniper cashing in first with a quintessential marker.

Watch Laine control the puck on a hard pass from Dustin Byfuglien, then spin and fire over the shoulder of Frederik Andersen through a tight and somewhat awkward shooting lane.

His goal had the building chanting "Laine's better!" as the Jets tilted the ice on the Maple Leafs in the final frame.

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EDMONTON, Alberta - Thursday's game between the St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers will mark a few homecomings.

All eyes will be on Nail Yakupov, who the Oilers traded to the Blues before the start of the season. Yakupov has been widely regarded as a draft bust; the first overall pick in the 2012 draft, the Russian right winger got only 50 goals in 252 games as an Oiler.

In four games with the Blues, Yakupov has a goal and an assist.

"It is weird," Yakupov told Oilers play-by-play man Jack Michaels in a 630 CHED interview. "When I was here, I didn't expect that I would stay in a hotel in this city, because I lived in this city. But, it's different. But, it's really good, now, we have a good team and a good group."

"He is fitting in," said Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo of his new teammate. "It's a different environment coming in -- and new linemates. I think he's playing a pretty hard game. He's created some really good chances. It's new systems for him ... but he's adjusting pretty well."

But it's another Russian who is lighting it up for St. Louis. Vladimir Tarasenko is tied for the league lead with four goals.

And, Thursday will also mark the final time Ken Hitchcock will coach an NHL game in his hometown.

Unless he has a change of heart, Hitchcock, an Edmonton native, is in his final season as a head coach. The Blues visit Rogers Place only once this season.

The Blues have started Hitchcock's final season in blistering fashion. Despite losing 2-1 in overtime in Vancouver on Tuesday night, the Blues are 3-0-1. It marks only the second time in team history that the Blues have earned points in the first four games of a regular season.

Meanwhile, the Oilers have won three of their first four, and scored 17 times in the process. Thursday's game, though, is the team's fourth home game of the season already -- the Oilers have played just one road date.

Because October is filled with so many home games for the Oilers, coach Todd McLellan said a good start to season isn't a want, it's a need.

"Having home games, and needing to put some points in the bank, knowing eventually you've got to go out on the road, we've been able to do that," he said. "I don't think anybody is comfortable yet, so we got some things we really need to work on. It keeps us on our edge, maybe I'm being too critical of our group."

The issue is that the Oilers have scored 17 (most in the Western Conference), but given up 15 (also most in the Western Conference). Each of the four games played so far this season have felt like a return to the Air Hockey Era of the 1980s.

But Oilers goalie Cam Talbot turned in his best performance of the season Tuesday, stopping 31 of 33 shots after giving up six goals in a loss to Buffalo on Sunday .

"I need a big bounce-back game, after the game I had last. As a team, I think that sometimes we let those losses kinda snowball in the past."

On Wednesday, Talbot and his wife welcomed twins to their family.

Oilers defenseman Mark Fayne left Tuesday's win over Carolina with a lower-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve Wednesday and the Oilers called up defenseman Ben Betker from their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif. The Oilers did not practice Wednesday.

The Blues placed Jori Lehtera, who hurt his hip Saturday in a win over the New York Rangers, on injured reserve Wednesday, which opens up a roster spot.

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