“I think I’ve had a lot of scoring chances through the whole final”, said Donskoi. “This was good time to get it in”.
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Thornton played almost 26 minutes, fired four shots, posted two assists and nearly scored a couple times in overtime. We went on to the main camp, he was the best player in the main camp, exhibitions.
One of the factors limiting Pavelski’s effectiveness has been Pittsburgh’s propensity to block shots.
His forecheck helped set up the winning goal by Joonas Donskoi. More than 95 per cent of the ice time has been spent tied or trailing one goal, but they were forced to play catch-up hockey again through most of Game 3.
San Jose celebrated being San Jose like never before on Saturday and that was even before the Sharks won.
It was home-ice advantage and the subsequent benefit of last line change which allowed the Sharks to zero in on their preferred matchup with Crosby.
Melker Karlsson replaced Hertl on the first line alongside Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton, and he seems the likeliest option for filling that void if Hertl can not play Monday. He suffered a lower-body injury after he took a hit from Pittsburgh forward Patric Hornqvist in the third period of Game 2 on Wednesday. They were outplayed for a good portion of the game and already up 2-0 in the series, so the Sharks were faced with more stress to score the next goal and stay afloat in the series.
“Yeah, that was a bit of a weird one”, Murray said of Ward’s goal. Ben Lovejoy was credited with the goal, his second of the playoffs.
The Sharks have yet to hold a lead in the Final, unlike their dominant performances in the previous three playoff rounds. “Nothing changes for me”. And so here was San Jose’s chance to get back into the game, and perhaps get back into the series.
If the Penguins are going to put their stranglehold on the Final that they were unable to Saturday night, Murray will have stand tall.
Murray barely moved until the puck was by him.
To be fair, Sharks goalie Martin Jones didn’t have much of a chance when Lovejoy’s bouncer from the point clunked off San Jose defenceman Roman Polak and into the net. The goal came just after San Jose completed a successful kill of Joel Ward’s high-sticking infraction at 2:58.
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.
The Sharks aren’t out of the woods just yet. But does the fact that they have 30 more shots in the series bother me? We get it. We’ve got to find a way to get it going. His shot was deflected in front past Jones to give the Penguins the 2-1 lead heading into the third.
Crosby, a two-time Hart Trophy victor and nominee for the award again this season, was still unsafe at points in Game 3, just not to the degree of the opening two games of the series.
The weather forecast for Monday calls for highs in the mid-80s.
“I wasn’t physically ready (after being drafted), I wasn’t mentally ready to come, I wasn’t a good enough player to come over”, said Donskoi. “As opposed to getting involved in boxing you out, they’re looking to knock them down and go the other way”. We can’t be sure if that flashed in Murray’s head as Donskoi skated around the back of the net or if that’s his standard procedure for such a situation, but it’s worth noting. “I’ve watched other guys and always tried to emulate, listen to their quotes”, Ward said. “I got one from Paul Pierce”. They get one, they keep coming. “It’s a tough break, but I’m trying to do my best to keep it a top line”. Try and battle and take away the bottom part of the net.
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“I had to look him up online to see who he was because he was gifted with the puck”, Couture said.
