Nick Bonino scores the game-winning goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
It was a game teetering in the balance. The Pittsburgh Penguins had roared out to an early two-goal lead and looked as if they would run the visiting San Jose Sharks out of the building. The Sharks settled it right down in the second period and squared the game. It went back-and-forth, up-and-down and for the longest time, it looked as if the opening game of the Stanley Cup final was headed to overtime.
But then, in a sort of bolt from the blue, the Penguins pulled it out the way they have so often during this magical playoff run, with a goal from the third line, Nick Bonino taking a centering pass from defenceman Kris Letang and chipping the puck past Sharks' goaltender Martin Jones, ultimately sealing a 3-2 victory.
And just like that, the Penguins took a 1-0 series lead, with the teams set to get back into action Wednesday night.
Bonino's goal came from an aggressive play by Letang, who just happened to be behind the opposing net, keeping the puck alive, in part because Sharks' defenceman Brent Burns had dropped his stick and was momentarily in limbo. Generally, teams discourage defencemen from being so deep in the zone so late in the game, but the strategy, according to Penguins' coach Mike Sullivan, was to be bold.
"We certainly didn't want to go into this series with a wait-and-see approach," Sullivan said post-game. "We didn't want to go through a feeling-out process. We wanted to try to go out and dictate the terms right away.
"I think that's when we play our best, when we're on our toes and we skate. So we try to do it in a calculated way. When I use the term 'fearless,' I think that word encompasses a lot of things. Most specifically, it's not just, 'let's not get overwhelmed by the circumstance, let's not have any sort of anxiety when we go out there because the stakes are high, let's just go and embrace the moment and challenge each other to be the best and have fun with this."
San Jose was making its Stanley Cup final debut against a Pittsburgh team with three championships in its history, the latest seven years ago, when both team captain Sidney Crosby and hotshot Russian Evgeni Malkin were still part of the NHL's post-lockout youth movement.
Letang, by contrast, was only in his second full season, and played just over 19 per minutes per night on that championship team, about eight minutes fewer than the heavy minutes he's been logging this post-season. On paper, San Jose has far greater depth on defence, given that Trevor Daley, who'd been playing top-four minutes, is out for the season, with a broken foot. Justin Schultz, the ex-Oiler, is now part of their top-six and he made a key play on the opening goal, by Bryan Rust. But mostly, it will be up to Letang to continue playing heavy minutes and counter the effect of Burns and Marc-Eduard Vlasic on the San Jose side. Both of those players made Canada's World Cup roster; Letang didn't, and he acknowledged he might have something to prove in this series.
"For sure, I want to be the best defenceman out there every night," said Letang, "but I have to stay the course, make sure I play my game, don't try to do too much."
Both teams received solid work from their respective netminders, Matt Murray picking up the win for Pittsburgh five days after his 22nd birthday, Jones turning in a solid game for a San Jose team that was badly outshot in the first and third periods.
Bonino's line, which also features Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin, had another good night – and though Kessel, the primary triggerman, receives most of the attention, Sullivan praised the much-travelled Bonino for his work, anchoring the unit from the middle. Bonino, curiously, was originally drafted by San Jose in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL entry draft, 173 overall. It was his second game winner of the playoffs, after scoring zero game-winning goals in the regular season.
"He's a guy that has a real high hockey IQ, sees the ice really well," said Sullivan. "He has real good hands. His awareness defensively I think, the use of his stick to take passing lanes away, it's impressive. He's brave. He blocks shots. He's a good faceoff guy. He's done so much for this team to help us get to this point. I don't know what other praise I can shower on him right now. We think he's a terrific player."
The Penguins dominated the opening 20 minutes, using their speed to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead and looking as if they'd run the visibly nervous visitors out of the building. But San Jose coach Peter DeBoer settled the Sharks right down between periods and they completely turned the game around, slowing down the reckless pace and generating most of the second-period scoring chances.
Goals by Tomas Hertl on an early power play and Patrick Marleau on a wraparound late put the Sharks back on equal terms, setting the stage for the fabulous finish.
Two Stanley Cup rookies, Rust and Conor Sheary, scored first-period goals 62 seconds apart to give Pittsburgh its early lead, though Rust had to leave the game in the third period after taking a hit to the head from Marleau. Afterward, the NHL player safety department determined there would be no additional discipline levied against Marleau for the hit.
Rust, part of a mid-season infusion of youth that turned the Penguins' season around, had scored four of the Penguins previous five goals before his exit.
His goal and Sheary's marked just the second time that the opening two goals of the Stanley Cup Final were scored by rookies. In 1924, Montreal's Howie Morenz scored the first two goals of Game 1 in a 6-1 victory over the Calgary Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League, two years before the Stanley Cup was competed for solely by NHL teams.
Murray was all of 15 when the Penguins won their last Stanley Cup. The past two months have been an absolute blur for him. When he hit the 10-win mark following Game 6 of the Tampa series, Murray became just the third NHL goaltender to reach double digits in postseason wins before hitting the mark in the regular-season, joining Dryden (in 1971) and the Calgary Flames' Mike Vernon (in 1986). His 12 wins is tied for the second highest win total ever by a rookie goalie in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Jones, by contrast, was actually part of the Los Angeles Kings in 2014, the back-up to Jonathan Quick, when they won the Stanley Cup. Not only has Jones touched the Cup, he has his name on it, before landing in San Jose last summer, as their new No. 1 netminder. Goaltending didn't cost either team the game, and both made excellent saves when called upon to keep the game close until the end. San Jose went into the game as the No. 1 scoring team in the playoffs, so it will be up to Murray and that cobbled together defence core to keep the likes of Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski off the score sheet for more than just one game. But Sullivan, for his part, thinks it's doable.
"I think our defense corps as a group, as a whole, have really stepped up for our team," he said. "These guys are playing as good as they can play or as good as I've seen them play since I've been here, all of them as a group of six. That particular pair, I think especially since Trevor Daley got hurt, has really stepped up for the group as far as helping us win."
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Martin Brodeur won four Stanley Cups. In fact, he won three. This digital version has been corrected.