Goaltender Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks denied Pittsburgh Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby from close in during Game 5 action in the NHL Stanley Cup Final Thursday in Pittsburgh. Jones made 44 saves as the Sharks posted a 4-2 victory to extend the series to Game 6 on Sunday in San Jose.
ITTSBURGH — Not so fast, Pittsburgh.
That was some demonstration of civic love and anticipation outside the Consol Energy Center and blocks in any direction Thursday night — tens of thousands of fans flooding the streets, gathering around big screens, ready to celebrate the Penguins’ Stanley Cup.
The Californians showed an annoying lack of understanding of the script, a total disregard for the spirit of the thing.
Sometime between crawling out of California down 3-1 in games and suiting up for Game 5 in decidedly enemy territory, the Sharks must have figured out that it would be interesting to see what happened if they scored the first goal.
Now they know.
An early 2-0 lead didn’t last long, but they got the lead back late in the first period and then rode the otherworldly goaltending of Martin Jones to a 4-2 victory that sends the Cup final back to San Jose for Game 6 on Sunday.
Now, though only one of 33 teams to trail a Cup final 3-1 has ever rebounded to win the series, the Sharks get a chance to be the second.
They’ll need to win on home ice Sunday to earn a trip back to Pennsylvania for Game 7 next Wednesday.
The Sharks had not led for one second of the series — their Game 3 victory was in overtime — until the bearded guy from Duck Dynasty, Brent Burns, skated out from behind the net, turned and fired short side on Matt Murray, 64 seconds into the game.
Barely a minute-and-a-half later, the Sharks sent the packed house into shock when playoff scoring leader Logan Couture, who hadn’t managed a goal yet in the final, deflected Justin Braun’s waist-high point shot past Murray for a 2-0 lead.
Three shots, two goals, two scoring slumps busted. And a blow to Murray’s confidence.
A puck-over-the-glass penalty to Dainius Zubrus changed that. Evgeni Malkin scored at 4:44 on the power play, his intended pass banking in off Braun’s skate, and 22 seconds later, a weak turnover by Sharks defenceman Brenden Dillon handed the puck to Nick Bonino, whose hopeful shot at the net was redirected by Carl Hagelin on Martin Jones’s doorstep, tying the game 2-2.
Now, it was deafening inside the Pens’ home palace, and if not for both Phil Kessel and Chris Kunitz rifling shots off the iron behind Jones within 10 seconds of one another on another power play, the Penguins could have led 4-2 before the 10-minute mark.
In addition to the crossbar, Kessel, who had set up Malkin’s goal, missed a couple of open-net chances and still the Pens looked all set to run away with the game.
But with five minutes left in the period, Couture — who may have skated and passed and shot his way right into the Conn Smythe Trophy discussion — made a lovely between-the-legs backhand pass right onto the stick of Melker Karlsson, whose weak shot was fumbled into the net by Murray.
It was the third goal he surrendered on just six shots, not exactly what the City of Pittsburgh had in mind when it named a street for him for a day.
At the other end, Jones was … well, what’s the word just past eye-popping?
The Penguins poured everything they had at the San Jose net, but between goalposts, crossbars, fanning on chances and Jones fighting for every puck that came near him — much like his old L.A. mentor, Jonathan Quick — the Sharks held on despite being badly outshot (46-22) and out-chanced.
“We needed some big-game performances from a few guys and Jonesy was one of those guys,” said Sharks coach Pete DeBoer.
Joe Pavelski, another of the stars who hadn’t scored all series for the Sharks, sealed it with an empty-netter.
They spent four games waiting for their big guns to start firing, and despite that, they had managed to keep the games close, waiting only for someone to lead them out of the offensive woods against a Penguins team that always seemed to be a step ahead in both offensive and defensive zones.
The leisurely pace of the schedule — with three-day gaps between Games 2 and 3, and every game after Game 4 — may have finally paid off for the bigger, heavier and older Sharks.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The elimination game is always the most difficult. We knew it going in,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.
“I thought our team as a whole was a little unsettled at the beginning of the game, but we settled in fast. I thought we had traffic, pucks to the net, we had people there, rebound opportunities, we couldn’t seem to find that third goal.”
But then, it’s supposed to be the hardest trophy in sports to win, the Stanley Cup.
The Penguins, unable to close the deal with a whole city holding its breath, waiting to explode, are doing their best to burnish that legend just a little more.
