With the win, the Sharks avoided falling into a three-games-to-none hole in their first Cup finals appearance in their 24-year history. “It’s big,” the Sharks’ Joe Thornton said of the win. The Sharks signed him last summer as an unheralded free agent, and now he may have scored the most significant goal in franchise history, keeping San Jose’s hopes of a Stanley Cup alive. Although outplayed in those games, the Sharks had shown enough resilience to stay competitive — losing the first on a goal with 2:33 left in the game and the second in overtime. In the 2009 Stanley Cup finals, Pittsburgh dropped the first two games on the road to the Detroit Red Wings, then rallied to win four of the next five to capture the Cup.

Source: New York Times June 05, 2016 04:28 UTC