Sharks vs. Penguins: Stanley Cup Final Game 2 Key Moment
The Pittsburgh Penguins were the better team than the San Jose Sharks for almost all of Game 2, but found themselves in overtime with a chance to head to San Jose tied 1-1 in the Stanley Cup Final.
All their hard work was almost fruitless until Conor Sheary scored the game-winning goal at the 2:35 mark of overtime to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 win and a 2-0 series lead.
Sidney Crosby won the faceoff off San Jose’s Joel Ward that led to the goal. The faceoff win was Crosby’s 17th in the game out of 24. The goal was a set play that Crosby told his team before the draw.
The faceoff win went to Kris Letang who then found Sheary for the goal. It was the second goal of the Final for Sheary and his fourth of the postseason.
“Well, our message was that very thing: let’s just play, let’s just keep playing, play the game the right way, let’s try to play fast, let’s make good decisions with the puck, let’s not feed their transition game,” coach Mike Sullivan said of his message before overtime. “When we do that, we’re hard to play against. Let’s continue to force the issue with our skating, make space plays, get in foot races. That’s the type of game that I think plays to our strengths. That was our message to our team.”
The Penguins outshot the Sharks 30-22 and held a 59-49 shot attempts advantage so it was important for Pittsburgh to close out San Jose in a game where they were clearly better. Otherwise the complexion of the series could have changed dramatically with a tough loss.
Instead of getting a confidence boost the Sharks find themselves in a deep hole. This was just the second time in 20 playoff games this year the Sharks have lost two games in a row and the first time they’ve found themselves down 0-2 this postseason.
The Sharks have a 7-2 record at SAP Center and now will have to use home ice advantage to stay in the series, rather than put a stranglehold on it – mostly because of Sheary’s goal.
“We had Nashville up 2-0, they came back and pushed us to seven,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “They held serve at home, we got to do the same thing.”
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