Murray stopped 23 shots and the Penguins blocked 38 shot attempts. “This was good time to get it in”.
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San Jose has yet to lead at any point in the series other than after scoring in overtime in Game 3.
“It’s which team can impose their game on the other team for the longest stretch”, DeBoer said. “We hope we’re back here, but we have to worry about the next one first”.
“We’re creating some chances”, Pavelski said.
It’s not something they’ll ultimately need to worry about: Joonas Donskoi scored 12:18 into overtime to give the Sharks the victory – the second time in as many games that a rookie has scored the sudden-death victor.
The Sharks carried the play for most of the middle period, outshooting the Penguins 9-6 overall. Hertl is listed as day-to-day with the injury, believed to have occurred in the third period of a Game 2 overtime loss. “As (Game 3) wore on, we talked to them about just simplifying the game, playing forward, putting pucks at the net, not looking for the extra pass”.
Ben Lovejoy scored and assisted on Patric Hornqvist’s goal that gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead heading into the third.
A day after the Sharks “got to” goaltender Matt Murray, scoring three goals, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was asked if he was concerned about the 22-year-old’s psyche – especially after Joel Ward scored a questionable goal to tie the game in the third period.
“It breaks some cardinal rules of goaltending, the first being that you never want to make the first move”, Hersh said.
The Sharks’ Justin Braun and Marc-Edouard Vlasic have also had strong postseasons on defense even though neither player is viewed as a superstar.
Sharks were outshot 42-26 for the game to continue the Penguins’ streak of out shooting opponents in these playoffs.
Sharks failed to clear the zone at the end of the second period leading to a goal with 52 seconds left to play. That this power play would last four minutes was all the more reason to think the Sharks would be able to produce at least one goal. “Nothing changes for me”. The Sharks are playing in their first Stanley Cup final.
In an overtime period controlled mostly by Pittsburgh, San Jose got the only goal. They left the time zone for the first time during the playoffs, dealt with a hostile environment, as well as poor ice conditions.
The Sharks can control the matchup again for Game 4 on Monday night, but will be helpless when the series shifts back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Thursday. It wasn’t going to stop us from trying.
“Yeah, we’d like the lead”, DeBoer said.
This story has been updated with quotes and additional material from the Sharks dressing room at SAP Center in San Jose.
Ward had a great look on goal thanks to a 2-on-1 breakaway that was turned aside. Karlsson beat him on a rebound of Brenden Dillon’s point shot with 11:53 to play. While the puck was just a few inches behind him, Sheary corralled it and then fired a wrist shot over Sharks goalie Martin Jones’ glove for the decisive score.
And the Tank went nuts.
Editors note: This was written earlier in the week, but didn’t get published because a certain editor, Paul Rogers, is a complete bonehead. He’s been a big part of this playoff success.
Braun had only four goals in the regular season and none in the post-season prior to Game 2.
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So go ahead and lay some blame, but the Penguins have done a lot of good things to get to this point.
