The Sharks blamed themselves for their shaky start in Game 1, with defenceman Brent Burns admitting the spectacle of playing the franchises first finals led to spending a large portion of the first period standing around and watching the Penguins take an early lead on the way to an eventual 3-2 victory. “They made a mistake when we scored”.
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Kessel, who was essentially run out of both Boston and Toronto before finding a better fit in Pittsburgh, gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 8:20 of the second period.
Neither team scored in the first period, though the Penguins had an 11-6 edge in shots and generally carried the play.
San Jose Sharks’ Chris Tierney (50) checks Pittsburgh Penguins’ Ben Lovejoy (12) into the boards during the first period in Game 2 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Pittsburgh.
One of the Penguins’ most effective weapons during these playoffs has been the newly christened HBK Line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel.
“Going to San Jose, they have a hell of a home record”, Hornqvist said.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Rust will be a game-time decision for Wednesday night.
The sequence began with a mishandled puck by defenseman Roman Polak. Jim Rutherford of the Penguins is trying to become the first GM to win the Stanley Cup with two teams during the expansion era.
San Jose kept the pressure on and almost scored in the final minute of regulation on a redirected shot by Ward.
The game-tying, overtime-forcing goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final is the latest example. It was the fourth postseason goal for Sheary, who has clicked with Crosby and has given the Penguins excellent scoring balance.
In 18 career playoff games, Nieto has eight points.
Logan Couture picked up his 17th assist of the playoffs in the Game 1 loss for San Jose, upping his league-leading point total to 25. At one point Doc Emrick said, “Is that another San Jose turnover?”
“In an ideal world, your job as a defenseman is to push the guy as far out of the shot lane as you can, but unfortunately the other team is oftentimes trying and their job is to get to the front of the net and sometimes you have no choice”, the always thoughtful and eloquent Lovejoy said.
Pittsburgh is exposing cracks in the Sharks’ lineup. The good news was we still had a chance right until the last five minutes to win that game.. If they can do that and establish their puck possession game in the attack zone, as they did in the second period of Game 1, they can tire out the Penguins, slow them down a little and force them to work the entire length of the ice to create offense.
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The NHL’s Department of Player Safety declined to call Marleau in for a hearing to discuss his hit. Marleau was penalized for an illegal check to the head, but thats all. Pittsburgh went on to win 2-1 in overtime. “You take that and you take the stuff that he’s gone through and you add to it while he’s 28 right now, he’s probably the most mature 28-year-old you’ll see on the planet”.
