A long, sometimes painful journey for the Pittsburgh Penguins ended in triumph Sunday when they won the Stanley Cup with a 3-1 victory against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. This championship came seven years to the day since their last one and is the fourth Stanley Cup title in Penguins history (1991, 1992, 2009).
It was a conclusion that was hard to imagine earlier this season when the Penguins were scuffling and hired Mike Sullivan to replace Mike Johnston as coach on Dec. 12. That precipitated an on-the-fly remake of the roster that ended in an unlikely championship. Pittsburgh is the sixth team to win the Stanley Cup after making a coaching change during the season.
That trust culminated in a dominant showing in the Stanley Cup Final, where the Penguins frustrated the Sharks at every turn. San Jose, in its first Cup Final in a 25-year history, led for 49:15 of the 374:53 played in the series.
Pittsburgh took the lead in five of the six games, including Sunday when defenseman Brian Dumoulin scored a power-play goal at 8:16 of the first period, and then strangled the life out of the Sharks, who exhausted themselves chasing the game. Pittsburgh led 2-1 entering the third period and the Sharks needed at least two goals to keep their season alive. Instead, they managed two shots.
It also helped that the Penguins had rookie goalie Matt Murray. He was a rock on those occasions when the Penguins' attention to defensive details failed.
He made 18 saves Sunday and was 6-0 with a 1.63 goals-against average and .936 save percentage following a loss this postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Going back to the regular season, Murray won 22 of his final 28 decisions. His 15 playoff wins tied him with Cam Ward of the Cup-winning Carolina Hurricanes (2006), Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers (1987) and Patrick Roy of the Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens (1986) for the most by a rookie in one postseason.
Defenseman Kris Letang scored the game-winning goal at 7:46 of the second period after he took a pass from Crosby behind the net to change the point of attack and beat San Jose goalie Martin Jones to the short-side post from a bad angle. Jones made 24 saves in Game 6 after making 44 in a 4-2, Game 5 win at Pittsburgh that prevented the Penguins from winning the Cup at home for the first time.
Letang had an assist on each of the Penguins' other game-winning goals in this series, making him the fourth player in NHL history to factor in all four of his team's game-winning goals in a Cup Final (Milt Schmidt, Boston Bruins, 1941; Jean Beliveau, Montreal Canadiens, 1965; Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers, 1987), according to Elias.
Letang's third goal of the playoffs came 79 seconds after San Jose center Logan Couture tied the game 1-1. Couture finished with 30 points, including four in the final two games, to lead the playoffs in scoring. He is the first player to have at least that many in the postseason since Daniel Briere did so for Philadelphia in 2010. Crosby also assisted on the empty-net goal by Patric Hornqvist with 1:02 left in the third period. Crosby, who had six goals and 19 points, passed up a shot on goal to get it to his teammate.
The Penguins will remember this championship, earned with series victories against the New York Rangers, Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning and Sharks, for a long time as well.
The Sharks players showed a great deal of class at the end of the game by staying behind to watch and respect the Penguins celebrations. Despite being visibly upset at losing the series both Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau probably realise another opportunity as good as this will never come around again. Thornton was trying to win the Cup for the first time in his 18-year NHL career.
Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Phil Kessel, who led the Penguins with 10 goals and 22 points.
Sharks Bites
Joe Pavelski: "We just didn't create enough. It just wasn't good enough. It's tough to put your finger on it. You expect your best right now and it didn't happen."Joe Thornton: "They are a great team and that is why they are holding that trophy up right now. That is all I can say."
Pens Quotes
Sidney Crosby: "When you look at the group, how many new players we brought in, it was pretty special what we were able to do. We had a core that played together for a while, there was some trust there. When you look at all the guys we added, the young guys, the guys we added through trades, I think it takes a special group to be able to come together that quickly and build that trust basically along the way."Mike Sullivan: "As I've said to them all along, I know our team is going to score goals. In order to win championships, you've got to keep it out of your net. You have to become a team that is stingy defensively. Everybody has to buy in to that idea for us to get to where we want to go. To their credit, they did, down to a man."
Matt Murray: "You grow up thinking about this stuff, getting to raise that Cup. [The Cup] was a lot heavier than I thought it was. What a moment. I'll never forget this day for the rest of my life."
Patric Hornqvist: "I'm going to remember that for a long time."
Phil Kessel: "I mean, how can you ask for anything better than this? Winning the Cup is what you dream of and what you play for."
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