The Sharks are looking for their first Stanley Cup victory this spring, where they now sit down 2-1 in their series against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the final best-of-seven series.
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Fear the Fin has a nice breakdown of the goal (if you can stomach it), here’s Murray in the RVH positioning at the moment of the shot.
“I think early in the playoffs, it was a huge part”. “This was good time to get it in”. I think there’s no bad shots for us. “The talk was we thought we’d played a good period, and we had to keep building on it despite what happened”. Look for improved play in that area moving forward.
In an overtime period controlled mostly by Pittsburgh, San Jose got the only goal from a player whose signing out of Finland in May 2015 got little attention. In a series that has seen every game decided by one goal, Donskoi’s goal breathed new life into the Sharks’ chances at capturing hockey’s biggest prize. There were times when Murray flashed brilliance, times when he was very good in Game 3, but there is no way around the reality that two of the goals he let past him were pretty soft and the other he never saw.
Martin Jones had 40 saves on 42 shots. The Sharks are a bug, physical group up front and should have the edge against he Penguins’ blue line but the story in this series so far has been the speed of the Penguins and their ideal execution of the little things that when added up make the difference between a win and a loss.
Joe Pavelski, Couture, Burns and Thornton are a combined 0 for 28 on shots, though they have a total of six assists.
In his place, Melker Karlsson has played on the top unit alongside Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski.
The Sharks have waited 25 years to reach the franchise’s first ever Stanley Cup Final, but it threatened to be a short stay there as the Penguins twice took the lead in Game Three.
“When the ice is like that, in a tight game, you don’t want to be turning pucks over at the blue line, especially against them”, center Chris Tierney said. Pittsburgh’s only two losses since came in overtime games they didn’t trail until the final goal.
Sidney Crosby, for one night at least, was contained. Crosby and linemates, Conor Sheary and Hornqvist, were contained by the Sharks defensive pair of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Braun, and held without a shot in the opening period.
Hertl has been one of the Sharks’ best forwards on this playoff run. “Just from warmups on, they were incredible for us”. The Sharks are playing in their first Cup Final. “Next game, I try to play more with puck”. “Nothing changes for me”.
Braun tied it up at 9:34 on a one-timer that completely fooled Murray. But the point is to make him rush and cough up the puck.
From that goal, the Sharks seemed to hit another gear, pushing deep into the Penguins’ zone for the next 10 minutes and limiting Pittsburgh’s counter attack opportunities. The Sharks, for what it’s worth, still haven’t played a second of any game in this series with the lead.
“I mean, you know, we miss Ward”, MacLellan told reporters. The Pittsburgh Penguins, who hold a 2-1 series lead, chose not to skate and instead conducted meetings at their suburban hotel.
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“We’ve got to do a better job”. It wasn’t going to stop us from trying. “A couple of those chances he created because he’s strong on the boards”.
