Sharks give up three goals in the third, lose 3-2 to Penguins.
After taking Cup fromSharks, Penguins inflict more pain in comebackwin
PITTSBURGH — Naturally, there was stone-cold silence inside the Sharks’ dressing room following their confounding 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday in a rematch of the Stanley Cup Final.
But it didn’t feel like anger, or even frustration, were the prevailing emotions. Maybe it was shock.
A two-goal Sharks lead after a largely dominant two periods went up in smoke in the third, as Evgeni Malkin and Scott Wil- son both scored to tie the score and Patric Hornqvist notched a power-play goal with 5:58 to go for the winner.
It was the first time under coach Pete DeBoer that the Sharks had lost in regulation
time when they held a lead after two periods. They were 28-0-2 in the 2015-16 regular season, and 9-0 in the playoffs, when leading after 40 minutes.
The Sharks are now 2-2 on their five-game road trip that ends in Detroit on Saturday.
The Sharks had a 27-10 advantage in shots through two periods over a Penguins team that was without the injured Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Conor Sheary. Pittsburgh also lost defensemen Olli Maatta and Derrick Pouliot to injury in the second period.
“We played a great road game for two periods and this league’s really a race to three goals,” DeBoer said. “That’s pretty much how it works.”
The shot from Hornqvist went off Paul Martin’s skate and behind goalie Martin Jones after the Sharks defenseman’s clearing attempt went off Joel Ward’s skate.
“They got a bounce or two more, but the position we were in, it shouldn’t matter,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “No matter how many bounces they get, we’ve got to seal that win.”
The Sharks took two minor penalties in the third. They killed the first one, but not the second.
DeBoer was upset that officials called Martin for delay of game with 9:43 to go for clearing the puck over the glass in his own end. His contended that with more than one stick in the area, it couldn’t definitively be ruled — at least from his perspective — that Martin was the last player to touch the puck.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic was in the box for slashing with 7:06 to go in the third, 68 seconds before Hornqvist’s goal.
“The view I had was that I don’t know how you could tell. There were two sticks there,” DeBoer said. “I don’t know how you could be that adamant that it was (delay of game). So that’s a pretty important call at that time in the game.”
Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, who were unable to make the Penguins pay for taking three minor penalties.
Malkin took a tripping penalty 4:10 into the third and Mikkel Boedker missed an open net on a wrist shot that would have given the Sharks a 3-0 lead.
“Just missed it,” Boedker said. “It’s a tough shot when it’s coming from the other way, but (Joonas Donskoi) made a good pass and it’s one of those you want to put in. When things are going the right way, they come in bunches.”
The Sharks also had troubles putting away Columbus last Saturday. They led by two going into the third, but held on to a 3-2 win.
“We couldn’t get the third goal and again let them hang around a little bit, which is something we’ve done lately,” DeBoer said. “Had some opportunities to extend it and didn’t. Probably deserved to be up by more but we weren’t. That’s what happens.”
Neither the Sharks nor the Penguins made much of the fact that this was the first meeting between the teams since the Cup final.
“The biggest thing is we were playing for a 4-1 record going into that third,” Pavelski said. “Not because it was the Penguins. It’s early in the year. It’s not easy to start coming on the road with all of these games. Now we’re staring at 3-2 and we move on.
“It would have been nice to beat them, sure. But the best thing would have been that record.”
The Sharks dominated the first half of the game and Hertl gave them a 1-0 lead with 14:56 left in the second period.