Pittsburgh Penguins Are Your 2016 Stanley Cup Champs

The Pittsburgh Penguins are your 2016 Stanley Cup Champions, beating the San Jose Sharks in six games to lift the best trophy in sports for the fourth time.

The Pittsburgh Penguins wanted to end things tonight, preferring to lift the Stanley Cup on the road than head back to Pittsburgh to win it at home. That’s understandable, and they were playing like they wanted to put an end to the season here.

Neither they nor the San Jose Sharks got too many shots off early on, as each side broke up their opponent’s passes over and over. Despite that, the Penguins would draw first blood. Dainius Zubrus tripped Brian Dumoulin and took a seat in the penalty box. On the following powerplay, Dumoulin himself would launch the puck between Martin Jones‘s arm and body, right into the back of the net.

That’s now the second penalty of the series that Zubrus has taken that led to a Pittsburgh powerplay goal. Thanks for your help!

A few minutes after that, Olli Maatta and Melker Karlsson collided awkwardly in the boards and went down. Karlsson was slow to get up and was shaky getting off the ice, immediately heading to the locker room. Maatta was not really at fault for the awkward injury, and Karlsson would return to the bench quickly.

Though the shot count didn’t represent it, both sides had a lot of great chances. At one point Joel Ward broke away up the center of the ice with the puck, but Chris Kunitz made a great defensive play to prevent him from even getting a shot off. Evgeni Malkin later made a phenomenal pass to a netfront Kunitz, who shot just wide.

The Pens had three consecutive, rapid-fire attempts on Jones and it was a testament to the goaltender that none of them went in. The tempo was incredibly fast, both sides desperate. Both goalies were more than up to the task throughout the first twenty minutes.

Phil Kessel had one great look near the end of the first but the puck went just wide of the open net. Regardless, they had dominated the first and had all the momentum on their side. That’s definitely the kind of play you want to see from them.

Matt Murray made a phenomenal sequence of saves on the Sharks early in the second period, including a wrap-around attempt and several point-blank shots. At the other end, Jones somehow stoned Nick Bonino from the doorstep. Then things moved back down to Murray’s end and the Sharks would not give up. Murray and his players, despite their fatigue, shut down the Sharks by blocking shots and ricocheting pucks out of the zone.

However, Logan Couture would tie things up about midway through the second period. He whipped the puck at Murray, and it ricocheted off the goalie’s inner leg through the five-hole and into the net. To his credit, Couture has had a great postseason, and leads this series with six points.

Just a few seconds later, the Penguins reclaimed the lead. Conor Sheary and Sidney Crosby teamed up to get the puck to Kris Letang, who absolutely rocketed the puck past Jones. The Penguins needed a response to that Couture goal, and they sure got it.