The middle frame exploded into a flurry of shots and penalties, mostly in favour of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins will face the San Jose Sharks in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in game seven on Thursday.
And then there are the kids: Rust, Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl, Brian Dumoulin and, of course, the goalie, Matt Murray, who turned 22 this week and will next week play in the Stanley Cup finals against the San Jose Sharks after starting the season in the American Hockey League.
Game 1 of the final takes place on Monday here in Pittsburgh, where fans haven’t seen a Stanley Cup final game since Crosby and Co. were grinding their way to the championship in a matchup against the Detroit Red Wings seven years ago. He wasn’t even on the roster at the start of the season.
And so now in the Final, the Penguins will play a Sharks team that’s experienced a similar turnaround after its own disappointing 2014-15 season.
“When you’re one and done all the time because the shot is blocked and it’s bouncing out of the zone or they’re getting the rebound, it’s tough to generate offense”, Head Coach Jon Cooper said after the game assessing his teams lack of offensive firepower.
No, on this special night in the Steel City, it was rookie Bryan Rust who played the role of hero, scoring twice en route to leading the Penguins to the final. It was an emotional boost for all of us, guys were excited to have him back.
“Going into the playoffs with this team I don’t think that anyone didn’t think that we couldn’t win a Stanley Cup”, defenceman Ian Cole said in an exuberant winning dressing room on Thursday night. After Tampa Bay’s Jonathan Drouin evened the score at the 9:36 mark, Rust scored again a minute later off a rebound. Throw in the 14 games he played last season, and he has five goals in 55 regular-season games.
The first thing that jumps out about the Sharks is that they’re averaging 3.50 goals per game. Sullivan cut through the noise and challenged his players to become accountable to each other. He was terrific all series, keeping the Lightning in games when they seemed to flatline at both ends of the ice.
Tampa Bay went as all-in as they could, ramping up the physical game and being far more aggressive on the puck. He played the game of his life and he didn’t quit on the play.
Rust was pivotal. His contributions bring to mind Max Talbot’s series of clutch goals when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009. But his playing time was minimal in the first two periods – he played only 1:58 in the second – and his on-ice impact was minimal.
It’s been no easy path to the finals, with Pittsburgh dominating the New York Rangers in round one, squeaking by Presidents Trophy victor Washington Capitals, and beating the Lightning in a one goal nail biter.
Stamkos had his best chance of the game with four minutes to go in the second.
Lovejoy was watching the action from the bench when a clearing shot deflected off his stick. Phil Kessel, Nick Bonino and Carl Hagelin – arguably their most effective line in these playoffs – have all been acquired in trades over the past year.
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Bonino cleared the final faceoff back to the boards and the Penguins killed the clock. However, he was in what he called a “holding pattern” because he needed to take blood thinners to prevent further clotting, and it was potentially unsafe for him to play while on them. The NHL has built in two days between games when the series shifts from coast to coast. Joe PAVILSKI, Joel Ward, JOONAS DONSKSI and Logan Couture.
