Game 5 disaster has Sharks once again on brink of elimination
SAN JOSE – It’s hard to imagine how Game 5 of the Western Conference Final could have gone any worse for the Sharks.
They were outworked and outclassed to start what was a decisive second period. They finished Sunday’s game with just 14 skaters, as Erik Karlsson, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl and Joonas Donskoi all had to leave early, due to various injuries. Donskoi eventually came back, but Evander Kane was both given the boot later in the third thanks to a litany of penalties.
And now, after their 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues, the Sharks once again find themselves on the brink of elimination.
The Sharks were outshot 20-6 in a one-sided second period that saw the Blues grow their lead to three on goals by Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko, who beat Martin Jones on a penalty shot at the 6:53 mark. The Blues added two more in the third period for good measure.
The Sharks had no response, as Blues goalie Jordan Binnington made 21 saves to help the Blues take a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 in St. Louis on Tuesday.
The Sharks are 4-0 in elimination games this postseason, as they trailed the Vegas Golden Knights three games to one in the first round and were tied 3-3 with the Colorado Avalanche in the second.
Bouncing back after a loss like the one Sunday, though, might prove to be the toughest task of them all.
“We’ve got enough guys in here that have played door-die games,” defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “I feel like this year we want to push it to a Game 7, we’ve had to do that in the past two rounds. We feel comfortable having to do that.
“We’re going to go into a tough building, but we feel confident going in there. We’re going to have to bring our best and ramp it up and I think we’ll be ready for that.”
Sharks coach Pete Deboer didn’t have a health update on any of his injured players.
Hertl took a shoulder to the head by Ivan Barbashev at center ice and didn’t return for the third period.
“Arguably a five-minute
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Brooks Koepka watched a 7-stroke lead in the PGA Championship dwindle to one on Sunday on a shaky back nine at Bethpage Black, but he eventually outlasted his good friend Dustin Johnson and won the year’s second major by two.
The drama involving Koepka on a windy day came right down to the 18th hole, where he pulled his tee shot into tall grass just outside a bunker. He chopped his ball out to the fairway to a spot 68 yards from the hole, and hit his third shot to 6 feet. He made the par putt and gave a wicked fist pump in celebration.
That finished a round of 74 for Koepka and a 72-hole score of 8-under 272 for his fourth career major title. He is the first player in golf history to hold back-to-back U.S. Open and PGA championships at the same time.
major on Tommy Hertl that if it’s called, that’s a momentum-changing play right there,” Deboer said.
Asked whether it was a mistake to play Karlsson, who had only a handful of shifts in the second period before he missed the entire third period, Deboer said, “Hindsight is 20/20, you know? We make those decisions based on the reports we get from the player and the medical (staff).