Stanley Cup Final Game 6 Recap

Penguins Win 4^th Stanley Cup

         On Sunday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks in 6 games to hoist the Stanley Cup for the 4^th time in franchise history. That night at SAP Center, Kris Letang scored what would hold up as the Cup winner, and Pittsburgh held on to win the championship.

         The Penguins and Sharks traded chances early on, but Pittsburgh would get the first power play of the game. Shortly after being tripped along the boards by Dainius Zubrus, Brian Dumoulin scored the game’s opening goal. After a fake shot that froze Melker Karlsson, Dumoulin let it go. The quick and accurate shot beat Martin Jones for the 1-0 lead at 8:16.

         Shortly after the goal, Joel Ward had a chance to tie it for the Sharks when Chris Tierney fed him a breakaway pass. Unfortunately for Ward, Penguins forward Chris Kunitz quickly got back defensively to knock it off his stick. Though they had lots of chances, the Penguins offence was foiled once again by Martin Jones, who kept the game at 1-0 entering the 1^st intermission.

         Before the 2^nd period started, the SAP Center honored the late Gordie Howe with a short video presentation. After the two teams resumed play, they again traded chances. The Sharks offence finally came through, as Logan Couture scored on a shot that bounced under Murray’s pad to tie the game at 6:27. A little more than a minute later, Kris Letang scored what was perhaps the biggest goal in his career.

         After entering the zone, he circled around the perimeter until he reached the front of the net, where he received a behind-the-net feed from Sidney Crosby. He then put a shot off the blocker that found its way through Jones to give the Penguins the lead again at 7:46. For the rest of the period, San Jose had a majority of the quality chances. Later on, Chris Kunitz had a perfect chance to bury the puck on a 2 on 1, but elected to pass back to Evgeni Malkin instead.

         Entering the final period of the season, the score remained at 2-1. In the 3^rd, the Penguins limited the Sharks to only 2 shots. It was enough to keep them off the scoreboard until Patric Hornqvist scored on the empty net at 18:58. By then it was pretty much over for San Jose. Though they got a 6 on 4 advantage with 9 seconds left, it wouldn’t matter at all.

         The Penguins had become the 2016 Stanley Cup Champions. I honestly was surprised to see Crosby win the Conn Smythe. I personally thought Kessel and Murray were the most deserving of the trophy. However, I will say that even though Crosby didn’t always appear on the scoreboard during the playoffs, he made many contributions off of the scoreboard such as leadership and play away from the puck. Matt Murray became the 4^th rookie goaltender to win the Stanley Cup. He’s now on the same list as Ken Dryden (1971), Patrick Roy (1986), and Cam Ward (2006).