D Kris Letang scored the winning goal at 7:46 of the second period, giving Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead over San Jose en-route to a Stanley Cup-clinching 3-1 win Sunday.
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The latest Penguins title came on the seven-year anniversary of the last time Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup in 2009, when Crosby suffered a knee injury early in the second period of the series finale against the Detroit Red Wings and could only sit on the bench and watch his teammates close the deal.
Kessel, who led the Penguins in post-season scoring, was among the key additions made to the roster over the course of the a year ago, joined by Carl Hagelin (16 points in the playoffs), Nick Bonino (18 points), and Trevor Daley, among others.
The Pittsburgh Penguins seemed out of the playoffs in December.
By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writer The decision of who gets to hoist the Stanley Cup in triumph after the team captain is sometimes an easy one, such as when a team has a veteran near the end of.
Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino were the big off-season acquisitions.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, Sidney Crosby was the team’s leader.
“It wasn’t easy getting here, especially the way things started out”, Crosby said. “Seeing him on the puck in the offensive zone this playoff, you couldn’t get it off him and there were times in a game where you really needed to see that to help a guy’s confidence and you saw it tonight. But we got it done”. “He’s a tremendous hockey player”.
It’s been quite a turnaround season for Crosby.
The fact that the decisive game came on the road did not boring the party, as Penguins players charged off the bench and mobbed rookie goalie Matt Murray while throwing their gloves and sticks into the air in a wild and boyish celebration.
In 53 regular season games with the Penguins, Daley tallied 6 goals and 22 points.
Pittsburgh’s Brian Dumoulin opened the scoring with a first period power play goal.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who finished the game with two assists, won the Conn Smythe trophy for being the most valuable player during the Stanley Cup playoffs, finishing with an overall line of six goals and 13 assists. Kessel said. “Winning the Cup is what you dream of and what you play for”. “He’s that good in my mind”.
“It’s a big change from where I was at before”, Kessel said of the move to Pennsylvania. Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton were held to one goal and three assists combined in the series.
Crosby was much better in the second half, too.
Star player Crosby was named playoff MVP.
Even more impressive: Jones stopped 93 percent of Pittsburgh’s shots in the series, and goodness, there were a lot of shots – more than 200 of them. At a $6.8 million cap hit, Kessel was easily worth every dime in his first year in Pittsburgh.
Sullivan was a hockey lifer who had been coaching the Penguins’ minor league team.
“Everyone takes that personal, puts the responsibility on their shoulders to be better”, Crosby said. “The one that resonates though is how proud we are of them”.
“We’ve got some work to do”, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford said on the ice after the win, as his players celebrated around him.
Jeff Zatkoff started the first two games in the first round against the New York Rangers, while Murray started every other game other than Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals when Fleury made his lone start of the playoffs.
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The Penguins were in control for nearly the entire final.
