Stanley Cup: Sharks stay alive with 4-2 road win
Sharks stay alive with 4-2 road win
San Jose avoided elimination in a game that featured five goals in the opening 15 minutes.
With the win, the Sharks cut the Penguins’ lead to 3-2 in the best-of-seven finale with Game 6 set for Sunday at SAP Center.
[...] if you dare think about it, a potential Game 7 would be played in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
“We’re playing for our lives right now,” Sharks defenseman Justin Braun said.
Martin Jones played the part of Superman as the Sharks’ goalie stopped 44 of 46 shots to silence the record home crowd of 18,680, which before the game had been chanting “We Want the Cup.”
Thousands more watched on large screens outside the arena as the Penguins tried to become Pittsburgh’s first major sports franchise since the Pirates in 1960 to clinch a championship in the city.
[...] the Sharks were celebrating after their franchise-record sixth road win this postseason.
[...] they have Jones to thank after he became the first goalie in the NHL’s expansion era (1967) with at least 40 saves in multiple wins in one Finals (he had 40 in the Sharks’ 3-2 Game 3 overtime win).
“He’s been our best player since the start of the playoffs,” defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic added.
Logan Couture was an offensive force, scoring a goal and adding two assists to push his postseason point total to a league-best 29.
Captain Joe Pavelski sealed the issue with an empty-net goal at 18:40 of the third period, his first goal of the Finals.
The Sharks escaped a wild first period with a 3-2 lead.
Couture had all of his points in the first 20 minutes, Brent Burns finally scored a goal, Pittsburgh scored twice within 22 seconds to wipe out an early deficit and trailed at the first intermission despite outshooting San Jose 15-7.
“For us to get on the board early, we needed that mentally,” defenseman Paul Martin said.
Burns got it going when he skated out from behind the net and flipped a wrist shot between Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray and the near post just 64 seconds after the opening face-off.
After assisting on Burns’ goal, Couture scored for the ninth time at 2:53 when Murray surrendered a redirection on a drive that originated from the right point by Braun.
“I know they came back and scored the two goals, but it was important for us to start like that,” Thornton said.
San Jose’s first lead of the series was short-lived.
[...] it all started to unravel when veteran fourth-line forward Dainius Zubrus lifted a puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty at 4:21.
Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel’s seam pass found an unmarked Evgeni Malkin, who made one move to his forehand and caromed a shot off the skate of Braun and past Jones 23 seconds into the power play.
San Jose’s Brenden Dillon then gave the puck away, right onto the stick of Nick Bonino whose drive was redirected by Carl Hagelin past Jones at 5:06 and — poof — the lead was gone.
Head coach Peter DeBoer “came down and reminded us there was a lot of game left, we just had to keep on playing,” Chris Tierney said.
The four goals in 5:06 were the fastest quartet scored in Finals history (the previous mark was 6:52 by the Penguins and Blackhawks in 1992’s Game 4).
Pittsburgh was anything but content, and continued to come at the Sharks in waves.
Burns committed a high-stick penalty at 8:18, and the Sharks survived despite Chris Kunitz hitting the crossbar and Kessel striking each post with a drive that got behind Jones.
The Penguins outshot the Sharks 11-1 in one stretch until Couture’s great back pass found Karlsson in the slot and the San Jose right wing beat Murray for the second time in two games for a 3-2 lead at 14:47.
The second period stood in stark contrast to the first as neither team scored.
Jones was nothing short of spectacular in the period — stopped 17 shots — as his teammates didn’t produce a shot until six minutes in.
The teams traded failed power plays before Jones made a sprawling stop on Bonino’s backhand putback of Kessel’s hard shot on net.
[...] Jones denied Patric Hornqvist in close late on a mini-breakaway courtesy of a perfect Malkin feed.
Ross McKeon is a freelance writer.
The Sharks became the 15th team (out of 33) to win Game 5 when trailing 3-1 in a Stanley Cup Finals.
San Jose is also the ninth team to win on the road in that scenario:
Stanley Cup Finals
Penguins lead series 3-2
Penguins 3, Sharks 2
Pens 2, Sharks 1 (OT)
Sharks 3, Pens 2 (OT)
Penguins 3, Sharks 1
Sharks 4, Pens 2