Marleau’s efforts not quite enough

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Patrick Marleau waited 18 years for this game, but admitted he didn’t really know what to expect once it started.

By the end, Marleau had scored a goal in his first Stanley Cup final game, but his team is faced with a 1-0 deficit after a 3-2 loss against the Penguins Monday night at Consol Energy Center.

“You kind of approach it like you would any other series,” said Marleau, who was drafted by the Sharks in 1997 and has played his entire career with the franchise.

“Obviously, there’s a lot more on the line, but just worry about your game and getting your game going I think is the biggest thing.”

Even though the Sharks would come up short, Marleau did his best to give them a chance late in the second period, when he found the back of the net to tie the score at 2-2.

Marleau corralled a puck behind the net, and scored on backhand wraparound. He tucked it inside the post just before Matt Murray’s skate could get there.

“I was just collecting the rebound there, and I was trying to beat him to the other side the net and was able to do that,” Marleau said.

According to teammate Joe Pavelski, that’s the type of goal that typifies what Marleau can bring to the Sharks.

“It was good,” Pavelski said. “Just battling around the net. Beats the goalie back to the post and a big goal for us.”

Center Joe Thornton, also playing in his first Stanley Cup final game, added that that goal helped continue the momentum the Sharks had built earlier in the second period after falling behind, 2-0, in the first.

“Huge goal at the time,” Thornton said. “Just stuck with it, big wraparound for him.”

Thornton and Marleau said the energy from the Consol Energy Crowd helped ramp up the stakes when the game got started.

“They came out hard in the first period, and we didn’t have our legs right away, so obviously they got a lot of shots in the first,” Marleau said.

“We started to clean things up, but we’ve got a lot better.”

Marleau was optimistic that better effort will show up in Game 2 Wednesday night. The Sharks lost their first game in the Western Conference final against St. Louis, but came back to win the series, 4-2.

The biggest adjustment, Sharks players said, will be adjusting to the speed the Penguins bring to the game.

“We stood around and watched a little bit,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “Didn’t get up to speed, didn’t get up to pace.”

That change likely will have to come sooner rather than later. Teams that lose the first two games of a Stanley Cup final series have only come back to win three times in history.

After waiting so long to get to this point, Marleau knows this is the time to seize the moment in front of him, and that starts with bouncing back in Game 2.

“It’s a huge opportunity,” he said.

“I’ve been waiting a long time to play in it and had a lot of excitement, a lot of adrenaline running through me.

“That’s not going to change through the series.”