San Jose faces elimination as Jones is overpowered in net
LAS VEGAS — This time, the Sharks lost their cool and composure, and a game. As a result, they’re on the brink of dropping yet another Stanley Cup playoff series at home when this Western Conference semifinal returns to the Shark Tank late Sunday afternoon.
Vegas was more aggressive and relentless for most of a 5-3 victory before a rowdy and record crowd of 18,693 at T-Mobile Arena that gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series.
Two years ago, San Jose’s season ended at home in a Game 6 loss to Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Finals. Last year, the end arrived in a Game 6 home defeat to Edmonton in the first round.
“For sure. it’s comin’ back” to Las Vegas, Sharks center Tomas Hertl said of a poten-
tial Game 7 on Tuesday at T-Mobile. “We have a strong team. We have to start right away (Sunday) and be hard. ... I believe everybody will be ready.”
Vegas won twice at home in a first-round sweep of the Kings, and it has won two of three games on home ice against the Sharks. At 2910-2 in T-Mobile during the regular season, the same home record as Toronto and Tampa Bay, the only teams with better marks in their own barns were Winnipeg (32-7-2), Pittsburgh (30-9-2) and Boston (28-8-5).
“Their regular season wasn’t an accident,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think 30 teams tried to figure that out and didn’t have success.”
When 28-year-old Martin Jones allowed his fourth goal, on Alex Tuch’s break-away tip-in from Cody Eakin’s shot with 11½ minutes remaining, DeBoer yanked his starting goalie — for Aaron Dell — for the second time this series.
A flurry of activity, including the Sharks’ three goals, resulted, with a spate of pushing, shoving, fisticuffs and whistles, all of which DeBoer called “windowdressing.”
Kevin Labanc and Hertl scored in the ensuing couple of minutes, and Mikkel Boedker made it very interesting when he slapped in a puck from close range on the left side, past Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, to cut the Sharks’ deficit to 4-3 with 4:16 left.
The Knights, however, resisted San Jose’s desperate charges. Fleury stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced for career postseason victory No. 68.
“We just have to play like we did in the third period,” Labanc said. “We just turned the puck over too much in the neutral zone ... and they’re a good team. We just have to get back to our own rink and have our own fans cheering for us.”
DeBoer pulled Dell with 2:21 left, for a 6-on-5 advantage, and nothing to lose. Jonathan Marchessault slapped in an empty-netter that crossed both blue lines for the final score of the game with 81 seconds left.
Jones previously had faced two other scenarios in which
his team, tied 2-2 in a series, played that fifth game on the road. In the 2016 Western Conference finals, he stopped 18 of 21 shots in a 6-3 victory in St. Louis. Last year, Jones stoned 44 shots in Edmonton, but the Oilers won 4-3 in overtime.
In postseason history, before Friday, the home team — according to HockeyReference.com — had won 64.6 percent (382 of 591) of Game 5s.
The Knights pressed Jones in the first 20 minutes, during which Vegas recorded 14 shot attempts to the Sharks’ seven. With three second left, Vegas scored the game’s first goal when James Neal slapped a rebound by Jones. Tuch and Erik Haula scored about four minutes apart from each other for a 3-0 lead in the second period.