Penguins Beat Sharks 3-1 In Game 4 Of Stanley Cup
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Pittsburgh Penguins are one win away from their fourth Stanley Cup.
Pittsburgh's suffocating speed stifled the San Jose Sharks again Monday, in a 3-1 win in Game 4 at SAP Center that pushed its advantage to 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.
Game 5 will be Thursday in Pittsburgh, where the Sharks have to win to force another game at home.
San Jose coach Peter DeBoer continued to shuffle personnel on his forward lines in hopes of finding combinations to solve the Penguins' defense. The fact the Sharks went 0-for-2 on the power play hurt, and Pittsburgh scored the first goal for a fourth straight game.
Melker Karlsson snapped Penguin goalie Matt Murray's shutout bid with his fourth goal of the playoffs. He picked up a rebound of Brenden Dillon's blocked shot and beat Murray over his left glove at 8:07 of the third to make it 2-1.
But Pittsburgh's fourth-line right winger Eric Fehr scored his third goal of the playoffs at 17:58 for the insurance the Penguins needed to kill the hosts' comeback hopes.
Pittsburgh scored the only goal of the middle period to take a 2-0 lead into the third period.
Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the series and fifth of the playoffs just nine seconds into Karlsson's interference of Fehr at 2:28.
Malkin had an easy tap-in as he got slipped behind the Sharks defense on the far post where teammate Phil Kessel hit him with a perfect cross-ice feed from above the left circle.
As has been the case throughout the series, Pittsburgh jumped out first and led 1-0 at the first intermission. The Sharks produced the final six shots to end a period with more shots than the Penguins for the first time (8-6).
The Penguins took advantage of a bad San Jose line change to score 7:36 after the opening faceoff.
A quick turn-around shot by Kessel from the right circle bounded off Martin Jones' pad right to an unmarked Ian Cole, and the Penguins defenseman one-timed his first goal of the playoffs past the San Jose netminder.
Jones made a number of key saves to keep it only a one-goal lead. Defenseman Brian Dumoulin was stoned on his second grade-A chance of the period at 11:30. And Jones denied both Penguins power-play shots after defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic interfered with Sidney Crosby at 11:37.
DeBoer started to shuffle his lines and shorten his bench at mid-game.
Logan Couture joined Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski like he did late in Game 3. Centers Chris Tierney and Nick Spaling were promoted one line each as forwards Karlsson, Dainius Zubrus and Tommy Wingels saw their ice time reduced.
Couture fired a shot off the shoulder of Murray with 5:01 left following a turnover by Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang. Patrick Marleau drew iron and the San Jose power play failed for a second time late when it managed one shot by defenseman Brent Burns.
NOTES: Sharks LW Tomas Hertl (lower-body injury) missed his second straight contest in Game 4 on Monday. "Day-to-day. He's out tonight," San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. Hertl sustained a lower-body injury believed to be to his left ankle in overtime of Game 2. A Czech report suggested Hertl is out for the series with a knee injury. ... Penguins rookie G Matt Murray bounced back from a playoff loss on May 20 to go 4-0 in Pittsburgh's next four games. ... San Jose's captain C Joe Pavelski had no goal and no points with four shots on goal through the first three games of the series.
