Tampa Bay Lightning @ Pittsburgh Penguins. Round 3 Game 7
Photo Conor Sheary, second from right, after scoring in overtime to give Pittsburgh the win. Credit Matt Kincaid/Getty Images
PITTSBURGH The Penguins moved another win closer to claiming the Stanley Cup on Wednesday night, and again it was rookies that helped get them there.
Conor Sheary scored 2 minutes 35 seconds into overtime, and goaltender Matt Murray made 21 saves to give the Penguins a 2-1 home victory over the San Jose Sharks and a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-seven series. Forty-four of the 49 teams that have lost the first two games in previous Cup finals have lost the series.
The Sharks will host Game 3 on Saturday.
Sharks Coach Peter DeBoer took heart in the closeness of both games.
Game 1 was decided in the last two minutes, he said. Tonight was an overtime game. I think well hold off on the funeral. Weve got a lot of hockey left to play.
Shearys wrist shot from the high left slot off a feed from Kris Letang beat Martin Jones high to the far side. It was the fourth goal of the postseason for Sheary, a 23-year-old rookie.
It usually doesnt work out like that when you draw up a play or even talk about a play, Sheary said. But I think they just lost me when I came off the wall there, and I had a lot of time to shoot, and it just worked out.
Murray, 22, became just the fourth rookie in N.H.L. history to win as many as 13 postseason games even if he was not tested much over the first two periods. The Sharks Justin Braun scored with 4:05 left in regulation to ruin Murrays shutout bid.
Penguins Coach Mike Sullivan, speaking of his teams response to Brauns goal, said: One of the things I really liked about our team and this is something I think weve evolved with over the last five months or so our guys just play. And thats what we told them on the bench when it went into the net: You know what? San Jose is a good team; theyre going to get scoring chances. We liked how our team was playing, we felt like we carried the majority of the play.
Phil Kessel scored 8:20 into the second period for Pittsburgh, which outshot its opponent for the 11th consecutive game. Following a 41-26 advantage in a 3-2 victory in Game 1 on Monday, the Penguins had 23 of the first 32 shots on goal in Game 2. San Jose went without a shot for a span of more than 11 minutes late in the second until it had two during a power play over the final 1:08 of the period.
Although the Sharks did not score during that power play, it did provide a springboard into the third period. San Jose played with a desperation befitting a team that was on the verge of falling into a two-game hole. The Sharks tenacity was rewarded when Brauns slap shot from along the boards just above the right-wing circle made its way through traffic deflecting at least once during its path to the net and beat Murray inside the near post on his glove side. Joel Ward provided a good screen in front of the net.
At that point, it appeared as if Murray was to be outplayed by Jones, who stopped 67 of 70 shots in this series until Shearys winning tally.
Murray said: I thought in this game, we were the better team for the most part of the game. We stuck with what we needed to do, and we got the huge goal from Conor. So, we got the job done.
While the Penguins roster is built on the stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Letang, rookies such as Sheary, Murray and Bryan Rust have played starring roles as the franchise seeks its fourth Stanley Cup, the second of the Crosby era and its first since 2009.
Crosby did have the secondary assist on the winner, winning the face-off from the left wing side back to Letang. Crosby also assisted on a Sheary goal in Game 1 that came minutes after Rust had scored Pittsburghs fourth consecutive goal spanning the final two games of the Eastern Conference final.
Kessels goal came 8:20 into the second period and was the result of a dreadful turnover by defenseman Roman Polak and a deflection of the puck off the skate of Sharks forward Tomas Hertl.
The tally was the 10th time in the Penguins past 10 games that a member of their H.B.K. line scored a goal. Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Kessel all had a hand in a sequence that began when Polak inadvertently set up Kessel for a wide-open chance.
Although the puck bounced over Kessels stick, Hagelin stripped defenseman Brenden Dillon of the puck as soon as Dillon corralled it. Hagelin fed Bonino who had the winning goal in Game 1 and Boninos shot hit the stick of a sliding Hertl, allowing the puck to trickle past Jones.
It would have gone in anyway, but Kessel finished it into an open net for his team-leading 10th of the postseason.
Continue reading the main storySource: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/sports/hockey/pittsburgh-penguins-san-jose-sharks-stanley-cup-finals-game-2.html
