He’s been a standout in the National Hockey League playoffs this year, and he is now only one win away from lifting the Stanley Cup.
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“There’s some things we can do”, DeBoer said. Murray also improved to 5-0 – with a 1.76 goals-against average and.
The Penguins, it should be noted, are 3-3 in the playoffs when they’ve had an extra day between games. “We’ve only won one out of four”.
“There is no magic answer”, DeBoer said. “And put them in the spot where they’re chasing the game a little bit, which we haven’t done yet”. “And hopefully, it adds up”. Malkin hasn’t had the best post season on record, but his body of work has helped in getting those wins.
The Sharks haven’t found that open teammate, though. But the combination of the Sharks’ lull after falling behind and the Penguins sitting back to protect their lead was hard to overcome.
When Detroit swept Montreal in 1952, and the Canadiens did likewise to Toronto in 1960, neither victor ever fell behind during a game in the series. The Penguins allowed three of the goals in their loss.
“I give our players a lot of credit”, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.
The Sharks are a team that can impose their will on their opponents when they have the lead.
They managed to land the game’s opening goal in 13 of their first 18 games this spring, winning 10 times.
The Penguins have a 3-1 series lead, and they’ve done a masterful job in the first four games frustrating San Jose’s stars at every turn. When they led after the first period, they were a combined 32-6. “We’re out of time”.
Murray, who just turned 22 this postseason, took over as the Penguins’ starting goalie in Game 3 of their first round series against the New York Rangers as regular starter Marc-Andre Fleury continued to recover from a concussion. “It’s exciting for us, but we know they’re a good team and they are not going to go down easy”. “We feel we can get it done”.
“We’ve got to find a way to stick one of those in early”, DeBoer said.
Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals between Pittsburgh and San Jose gets underway on Thursday night at 8:00 p.m.
“But you can’t change the fact that we’ve played behind the entire series”. “I think his game has evolved into a complete two-way game”. That’s not our team at all.
“We’ve been chasing the game the whole series by not scoring first”, DeBoer said after Monday’s loss. “You win one and you never know what can happen”. Meanwhile, the Sharks’ top line had to be reshuffled after Game 2 because Tomas Hertl – who had been with Pavelski and Joe Thornton – has been unable to play with a lower-body injury.
The Sharks head into Pittsburgh for game five on Thursday night with their season and Cup aspirations on the line after only salvaging a single win at home during games three and four and are coming off a loss in game four that has all the momentum with the Penguins. “We’ve shortened the bench the last two games because we’ve been behind”. He has racked up 17 points, just like Crosby, and scored and assisted during the crucial Game 4 in San Jose.
The Sharks won all three games in Los Angeles against the Kings, and two of three in St. Louis after losing all three times in Nashville (twice in overtime).
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“There’s no quit in our group”, DeBoer told NHL.com staff writer Amalie Benjamin.
