Sidney Crosby enters the faceoff circle with a plan every time, well aware that it will almost certainly evaporate once the puck makes contact with the ice.
That does not stop the Pittsburgh superstar from doing it, because every once in a while the idea in his head morphs into reality; times like Wednesday night, when Crosby’s improvization helped move the Penguins within two wins of the Stanley Cup.
Crosby’s faceoff win helped set up Conor Sheary’s perfectly placed wrist shot 2 minutes, 35 seconds into overtime, one that lifted the Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Photo: AFP
“I call 25 faceoffs a night,” Crosby said with a laugh. “I got 24 wrong tonight.”
It is the one Crosby got right that will live on if the Penguins find a way to close out their fourth championship. Just before heading to the dot to the right of San Jose goaltender Martin Jones, Crosby told Sheary to line up on the wall and then look for a soft spot in San Jose’s defensive setup.
Crosby won the draw and dropped it to defenseman Kris Letang, who feigned a shot then slipped it to Sheary. The 23-year-old rookie zipped it over Jones’ outstretched glove for his fourth goal of the playoffs and second of the series.
“It’s pretty surreal,” said Sheary, who began the season in the minor leagues.
Sharks defenseman Justin Braun tied it with 4 minutes, 5 seconds left in regulation time, but San Jose fell to 0-4 when pushed to overtime in the playoffs after getting largely outplayed for much of the night by the quicker, more nimble Penguins.
Phil Kessel scored his 10th goal of the post-season for Pittsburgh, while Matt Murray made 21 stops.
The Penguins have not trailed at any point while reeling off four straight playoff victories after falling behind in the Eastern Conference final against Tampa Bay.
“Game 1 was decided in last two minutes, tonight was decided in overtime,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’ll hold off on the funeral.”
Maybe, but time is running out. Only five teams in NHL history have come back from a 2-0 deficit in the finals to win the Cup, a hole the Sharks find themselves in, despite Braun’s second career playoff goal and 28 stops by Martin Jones.
“We know that if we play this way we’re not going to win games, so we need to be better,” San Jose center Logan Couture said.
The Sharks blamed themselves for their shaky start in Game 1, with defenseman Brent Burns admitting that the spectacle of playing the franchise’s first finals series led to spending a large portion of the first period standing around and watching the Penguins take an early lead on the way to an eventual 3-2 victory.
Burns and his teammates promised repeatedly that they would be sharper and more focused faced with the prospect of heading home in a massive hole.
Game 3 is to be played in San Jose tomorrow.
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