Forward Tomas Hertl has a lower body injury and will not play in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday at SAP Center, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. For example, Sharks’ captain Joe Pavelski, who leads all players in these playoffs with 13 goals, has also been held without a point through three games.
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And the Penguins hadn’t trailed in the series until San Jose won Game 3 in overtime. They’ve been a strong team on home ice during the playoffs in winning eight of 10 contests and tonight they need to notch another one.
“You look through these playoffs and third-line, fourth-line guys have stepped up for both teams and scored big goals”, Sharks center Logan Couture said Sunday. An impressive effort by the hard-shooting defender and a courageous response by a Penguins team that did a great job game-planning to thwart this critical element of San Jose’s attack.
Pittsburgh defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who has 15 goals in 334 career regular season games, scored one of the Penguins’ goals in Game 3 and set up the other that was deflected in by Patric Hornqvist. They bounced back to beat Washington 2-1 in Game 2 and Tampa Bay 5-2 in Game 6. With him in net, the Sharks have faith that games will never get out of hand, regardless of whether they are at their best.
The greatest of those occasions occurred on Saturday night as the organization hosted their first-ever Stanley Cup Final game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They get one, they keep coming.
“It didn’t bother him”, DeBoer said. Those goals have many spectators worrying, but Murray isn’t among them. They are the faster team, they are the more aggressive team, and they are going to get their opportunities.
He then saw how Jones played when the Sharks were stumbling some in the early-going this season, how he bounced back from a poor night.
Two nights after allowing a soft game-tying goal to Joel Ward, Murray was steady throughout to put the Penguins one win from skating off with their fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Step two, though, is now finding a way to get more of those shots to actually make it through to goaltender Matt Murray. It hadn’t been to the West Coast since December 6 in Anaheim before Mike Sullivan took over as coach. They typically complete quick passes that turn into scoring strikes the other way, but here the puck would get as the neural zone of the Sharks blue line and come right back. It is doubtful that Penguins’ goaltender Matt Murray has ever met Hurdle, but his brief National Hockey League career can best be described by saying that he showers well. There were three penalties called in Game 3 – none in the final 20 minutes – and only three in Game 2. “We’ll keep trying to get it there”. I think there’s no bad shots for us. His physical forecheck in overtime of Game 3 directly led to Joonas Donskoi’s game-winner.
Thursday, June 9: San Jose at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
“Obviously the biggest game of the year”, DeBoer said.
What s the mood like in the Sharks dressing room in between the third period and overtime, considering the heartache they ve experienced in extra sessions over the past seven weeks?
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It remains to be seen if Sullivan starts to work that pairing a little more in Game 4, but it definitely seems like something to seriously consider in a bid to get Malkin on the board.
