Penguins vs. Sharks brings waves of excitement
Pittsburgh is hosting its first Stanley Cup final since 2009
In every square foot of personal space from the Fifth Avenue curbside to where the modest sloping lawn meets the red brick wall of the Church of the Epiphany, the festive crowd would swell and sway with anticipation well before the doors even opened.
Usually at these Uptown coordinates, such a commotion requires advance notice of the church’s legendary Lenten fish fry, but it was a much bigger fish being prepped and seasoned in the building next door, where the Penguins encountered the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, a spectacle that until Monday night had avoided this city over seven straight springtimes.
The home crowd seemed to be favoring a been-here-done-this approach in the evening rampup, this being the fifth time Pittsburgh has been to the National Hockey League’s championship round, the third since 2008, more than any franchise in that span
not named the Chicago Blackhawks. So sure, veteran Penguinologists painted their faces and smoked their cigars, but they might do that just for Monday.
The Sharks, in thematic contrast, were first-timers in the sport’s biggest show. Distinguished physically by their frontiersman beards, the Sharks had put to shame the generic NHL facial hair, commonly a scraggy collection of modest length, if any. These Sharks have the full extended hedges, looking variably like Civil War generals or extras from “The Revenant.”
From the moment these NHL playoffs began in midApril, the Penguins have been betting favorites to win the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup, but sentiment had shifted significantly as the game’s serious students more carefully inspected the relentless surge of the Sharks to the Western Conference title.
By the morning of Game 1, Penguins-Sharks was a virtually even proposition in Las Vegas, and 17 of 21 alleged experts with NHL.com and the NHL Network had picked the Sharks to win the best-of-seven series.
But there’s no shortage of folks with legitimate hockey street cred hereabouts, guys like Pat McDonough for example, who has stood security in the Consol Energy Center’s corridors for most all of its hockey nights, and in the old Mellon/Civic Arena before that. Any night’s a good night to talk to Pat, who has distilled every Penguins game since like forever into two or three words for the building’s backstage foot traffic. “Good game,” for wins, “Tough one,” for losses, “Drive safe,” for ties.
Truth is, when Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final lands in Pittsburgh on Memorial Day, it’s an especially good night to get Pat’s opinion and to thank him for his service to America.
“I didn’t get interested in hockey at first,” he said. “In ’67 [the Penguins first season], I was just home from Vietnam. I enlisted 10 days after I graduated from Perry High School. But my dad was always interested. He did some of the brick work when they built the Civic Arena.”
By game time, Pat has his prediction pretty much set in brick. “Five games,” he said. “Penguins in five. They’re pretty evenly matched, but that’s what I think.”
They were just about as evenly matched as possible through the first two periods last night, with the Penguins jumping to a 2-0 lead in the first on goals by sensational rookies Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary. The Sharks wiped the lead away in the second on goals by Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau. Marleau’s goal, coming as it did with less than two minutes remaining in the period, averted a serious predicament for the Sharks, specifically that when the Penguins led after two periods this season, they were 48-1.
But in a Stanley Cup final that matches inexperienced goaltenders, the Penguins’ sensational Matt Murray and San Jose’s resilient Martin Jones, it was Jones who, after a long cadenza of dazzling saves, finally cracked late in the third period.
Penguins center Nick Bonino, who’s made a specialty of overtime goals in the NHL postseason, decided he wasn’t waiting around for that kind of drama.
Bonino took a pass from Kris Letang from below the goal line and flicked it over Jones’ shoulder with 2:33 left in the third period to give the Penguins a 3-2 victory that was every bit as big as it looked.
“Not my hardest shot ever,” Bonino said. “But it found a way in.”
Teams that win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final skate with the actual iconic hardware 78 percent of the time.
“San Jose might have a song,” Pat said afterward, “but tonight we showed them they don’t belong.”
Pat McDonough, he of the tersely worded statement, now moved to poetry.
Why not? It’s the Cup.