Bounce-back performances from those two key players moved the Penguins to the brink of winning the Stanley Cup.
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The Penguins went into the SAP Center in San Jose last night with a 2-1 series lead and are heading back to Pittsburgh with a chance to win the Cup on home ice.
The Penguins have done a magnificent job defensively so far in this series.
“I think when you have the lead you can play differently and you feel a lot more comfortable”, he said following Monday night’s 3-1 defeat. Starting with the puck is paramount, but you’ve got to make a play when you get the puck.
The Penguins are looking to make history as they look to win the Stanley Cup in the same season they fired their head coach that started the season.
“This group doesn’t get too frustrated”.
“It’s not a luxury we have of knowing”, center Chris Tierney said also stating the obvious.
For San Jose, it was a disappointing showing in a game it needed to have.
“Although Cole put the Penguins ahead to stay, Malkin “ shut out in the first three games against San Jose “ scored the victor during a power play at 2:37 of the second, when he set up at the right post and chipped in a feed from Kessel for his first goal in seven games. “That takes you out of your four-line rhythm, it affects all parts of your game”. “Anytime you can score the first goal of the game, it really increases your chances”.
“I don’t know what it is”. Hell, they ought to look for divine intervention to take this series to six games.
Matt Murray’s name has popped up in the Conn Smythe discussion and really that is all that needs to be said about the quality of goaltending Pittsburgh has received in these playoffs from the 22 year old.
Many of the Sharks’ scoring plays had been initiated from point shots and finished by the tipping prowess of players like Pavelski. TH2N credits his play and discusses the challenges that the Sharks are experiencing against the Penguins.
“Everyone was writing us off”, he said. We’ve got to do that. That approach resulted in the Sharks swarming their net often in the final period and turned into a goal for Melker Karlsson and several other glowing opportunities.
The Penguins took a bite out of the Sharks’ momentum early, with Cole’s first career postseason goal coming in the first half of the first period.
Sullivan will have his team prepared both on the ice and mentally.
He anticipated there would be a rebound because the Penguins routinely put the puck on goal with the idea of creating one that can be converted into a scoring chance. “We’ve been good on the road all year”.
And Pavelski, the team captain, is not running away from that.
Behind goals from Ian Cole, Evgeni Malkin and Eric Fehr, the Eastern Conference champions extended their lead to 3-1.
The Sharks killed a penalty and eventually went on their own power play and the place was rocking.
DeBoer started to shuffle his lines and shorten his bench at midgame.
Matt Murray was bad in Game 3. The third period was huge for Murray, stopping 11 of 12 shots.
Kessel got the offence going for the Penguins in the opening minutes of the first frame. We’re going to show up and try to get this back here for Game 6. There have been moments in which the Sharks have looked like perhaps they’ve gotten things together, but those haven’t been frequent enough. In fact, they did it after falling behind Detroit not just 3-1, but 3-0, which as we all know from our reading is the Sharks’ enduring 2014 memory. “We’ve only won one out of four”.
The Sharks made a strong late push, and he robbed Couture, left all alone in the slot after a turnover by Kris Letang, late in the second.
Coach Peter DeBoer said playing from behind messes with the Sharks’ process.
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It is not known how or when the lower body injury to Hertl occurred.
