San Jose Sharks: No Hertl, No Problem As Sharks Take Game 3

In spite of the absence of their top-line forward Tomas Hertl, the Sharks escaped Game 3 with an overtime victory.

The odds were stacked against the San Jose Sharks following Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals when team teal faced a 2-0 deficit against a red-hot Penguins team. Then, Saturday morning the news broke that top-line forward Tomas Hertl would miss Game 3, and it looked increasingly bleak for the Sharks.

But the Sharks overcame the hurdle and escaped Game 3 with the victory, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in a virtual must-win contest in front of a rocking SAP Center.

Things went south fast for San Jose as the Penguins came out of the gate looking like the team down 2-0 and desperate for a win. Their heavy push paid off when Pittsburgh took an early lead on a fortunate deflection off the leg of Roman Polak. Ben Lovejoy was credited with the goal, his second of the playoffs.

The Sharks woke up soon after, and were the much better team throughout the rest of the first period, showing off in the form of a goal. Justin Braun rifled a wrister from far out that found its way past Penguins goalie Matt Murray to tie things up at one, while also benefitting from a nice last-second screen from Melker Karlsson, who did a good job filling in for Hertl on the night. Jones would make a nice save against a Phil Kessel breakaway opportunity just after the equalizer.

The second period, like the first, seemed to fly by with very little stoppages and scoring chances for both sides, including a Logan Couture shot fired through Murray’s five-hole, but it got all iron.

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Just when it looked like teams were headed for the final period deadlocked at one, the Pens notched a go-ahead goal in the final minute of the frame. Like their first goal, it was off a deflection, but this time off a Penguins player – Patric Hornqvist.

The impressive deflection-goal was number eight in the postseason for the Swede. In the final seconds, Joonas Donskoi just missed the top-crossbar in an attempt to knot up the score.

The Sharks wouldn’t have to wait too much longer though to see an identical number of goals on the scoreboard. Midway through the third period, Joel Ward – who had already scored several playoff goals in opportune moments for San Jose – fired a mid-range slap-shot past Murray’s reach and into the back of the net just as Nick Bonino was coming out of the penalty box for Pittsburgh. The former Predator and Capital now stands at seven goals in the playoffs, with Donskoi and Joe Thornton tallying their sixth and 17th assists of the playoffs as well.

As overtime came, the Penguins were probably in the more comfortable spot with less pressure. They were outplayed for a good portion of the game and already up 2-0 in the series, so the Sharks were faced with more stress to score the next goal and stay afloat in the series.

Thornton missed on two great chances, and the Penguins were earning opportunities as well, but at 12:18 of the first overtime, Donskoi took it upon himself to make a play. He ripped a turnaround snapper near-side just past Murray into the net, giving team teal the win. Credit again to Karlsson and to Chris Tierney, who had a nice game himself, for solid pressure on the forecheck to force the Penguins turnover to create the chance. It was Donskoi’s first career playoff overtime goal.

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Needless to say this was a huge win for the Sharks in order to ensure a Game 5 and avoid the dreaded elimination game. The entire defense had issues at times again making some sloppy plays, but the forwards and Martin Jones really stepped up and were outstanding.

San Jose will look to win Game 4 Monday night and make this series a best-of-three scenario.