Pittsburgh Penguins win 2015-2016 NHL Stanley Cup
June 19, 2016
It took seven years and one day exactly for the Pittsburgh Penguins to repeat their ultimate goal in winning the Stanley Cup.
Coming into Sunday night’s game at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, the star-studded Pittsburgh Penguins roster found themselves up 3-2 over the San Jose Sharks. With a Sharks victory, game 7 would be played in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. With a win, the Penguins would clinch their second Stanley Cup title in the past seven seasons.
The result was the later, as the Penguins emerged victorious with a 3-1.
Coming into the game, analysts could not stress enough that in order for the Sharks to force a game 7, their star players would need to be at their best and they would need to have a quick start with an effective forecheck. However, analysts and Sharks’ head coach Pete DeBoer agreed that this was not the case for the first ten or so minutes.
Seven minutes and fifty seconds into the first period, Sharks’ forward Dainius Zubrus was called for tripping Penguins’ defenseman Brian Dumoulin. The Penguins made the most of this opportunity and after a lengthy shift in the offensive zone, Dumoulin himself blasted a slapshot from the left point past goalie Martin Jones to make the game 1-0.
The first period continued with high intensity and both teams generating many chances. The Sharks seemed to generate energy from a questionable hit by Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta on Melker Karlsson roughly halfway through the period. Karlsson headed back to the dressing room which forced DeBoer to shuffle his lines. However, the score stayed 1-0 in at the end of the first period, the Penguins were outshooting the Sharks 9-4.
The second period resumed where the first period left off with both teams generating lots of high-danger scoring chances. The goalies in Martin Jones and Matt Murray proved to be heroic- stopping every shot they faced to the first six and a half minutes.
Finally, at 6:27 of the second period, Sharks’ forward Logan Couture scored his 10th goal of the playoffs off the rush by using Penguin Justin Schultz as a screen.
However, the Penguins responded immediately with a goal at 7:45 of the second. After a faceoff win, Sidney Crosby emerged with the puck and sauced it to defenseman Kris Letang, who made no mistake in blasting it five-hole past Jones to take a 2-1 lead.
Approximately 5 minutes later, analyst Pierre McGuire pointed out that Sharks’ defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was missing from the bench. Vlasic had been a key piece throughout the Stanley Cup Final in defending against the Penguins’ top line, his absence enabled the Penguins to dominate in the offensive zone. Vlasic returned at the end of the second period.
The third period picked up where the second left off with chances for both sides. Penalties were called to both sides, but the penalty kill units were supreme.
The game remained 2-1 until the final minute. With the empty net, the Sharks were able to generate a couple chances having an extra attacker. However, thanks to Sidney Crosby’s block with just over a minute left, Patric Hornqvist was left with a partial breakaway and an empty net. He made no mistake in firing it in the open net from the blue line to essentially seal the victory for the Penguins, 3-1.
After the teams shook hands, the Sharks returned to their respective locker room and so the ceremony started. Sidney Crosby was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy, given to the MVP of the playoffs.
Then, out came the Stanley Cup, given first to Crosby, who then passed the trophy off to the rest of his teammates.
In a post-game interview, Penguins’ head coach Mike Sullivan, who replaced Mike Johnson around half-way through the season, stressed his team’s resilience throughout the whole season. While he came into a difficult situation where a high-end team was simply not winning games and not playing to the best of their abilities, they were remarkably able to turn their season around; as the group started playing better, their confidence in their coach grew and vice versa.
Analyst Keith Jones praised Mike Sullivan in saying, “One of the best coaching jobs I’ve ever seen.” Penguins’ owner Mario Lemieux gave lots of credit to GM Jim Rutherford for the work he was able to do at the trade deadline in acquiring Carl Hagelin and calling up key players like Conor Sheary.
