Penguins Put the Bite on Sharks, Win 2-1 in OT

There’s an old axiom in baseball. You win with pitching, defense, and timely hitting.

Translated for hockey? Defense, clutch goaltending, and timely scoring. Which the Penguins got—in spades—during last night’s thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over San Jose in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Indeed, the Pens delivered a classic postseason performance. One that harkened back to Games 2 and 3 of the ’92 Cup Finals, when the locals beat the defensively minded Blackhawks at their own game.

In particular, the black and gold did a terrific job of clogging shooting lanes and denying a seriously skilled Sharks squad access to the prime scoring areas. With four blocked shots, ubiquitous Nick Bonino led the way.

Our guys were physical, too. Surprisingly so. Playing the game of his life, Ben Lovejoy dished out five hits, including a couple that registered on the Richter scale. Kris Letang and resurgent Olli Maatta had four hits apiece.

Patric Hornqvist? A game-high six.

Channeling his inner Tom Barrasso, goalie Matt Murray was exceedingly sharp. Facing down streams of pressure delivered in awkward, staccato bursts, the cucumber-cool rookie made 21 saves. None larger than his flurry of stops on a swarm of Sharks in the final minute of regulation. Unless it was his doorstep denial of San Jose sharpshooter Joe Pavelski a fraction before the second-period horn. Or his big-time save on Joel Ward during the early going.

It helps to be lucky. The visitors rang four shots off the iron…including three by snake-bitten Tomas Hertl. On the home side of the ledger, Carl Hagelin chimed one off the crossbar.

As for timely scoring? How about the HBK Line? With a typical burst of speed, Hagelin hounded Sharks defender Brenden Dillon into a turnover. Like a vulture hovering over an easy meal, Phil Kessel scurried to the net in time to nudge Bonino’s deft cross-crease shot over the line at 8:20 of the second period to break a tense, scoreless tie.

“I think guys are going to give him some crap about that, because it’s Phil,” Bonino said of No. 81’s opportunistic play. “But he can’t pass that up. You have to whack that in.”

The overtime winner? A gem.

Sidney Crosby won the draw clean from Ward and pulled the puck back to Letang. Instructed by his captain not to shoot, “Tanger” instead dished a short pass to Conor Sheary at the top of the left circle. After reaching back to retrieve the rubber, the Pens’ rookie wheeled and beat Martin Jones to the glove side.

Screened on the play, Jones never saw the shot.

“I call [24] faceoffs a game, so I got [23] wrong tonight,” Crosby said modestly. “It’s one of those things; guys have to execute, you have to make the pass. That’s exactly what they did.”

While naturally on Cloud Nine, Sheary grasped the meaning of the moment.

“It’s surreal,” noted the undrafted free agent out of UMass-Amherst. “Important moment. Most important, we got a win and we’re up 2-0 right now.”

Amen, Conor.

Two down. Two to go.