Penguins Escape San Jose as Stenberg Finds Only Metal
This one was a coin flip that landed on Pittsburgh. Neither team really controlled the night. The difference came down to which shots went in and which ones clanged off the frame.
The chances were almost dead even. Shots finished 36-35 for San Jose. By expected goals, a measure of how many goals a team's chances were worth, the Sharks had 3.16 and the Penguins 3.34. That gap is close enough to call a tie.
The iron did the rest. Ivar Stenberg hit the frame twice, on chances worth 1.05 goals on their own. Pittsburgh's Egor Chinakhov rang one off the iron too.
Both goalies were sharp. Sergei Murashov stopped 34 of 36, and Yaroslav Askarov stopped 33 of 35.
Macklin Celebrini did everything he could for San Jose, with a goal and an assist in 25:14 of ice time. Mason Marchment scored the Sharks' other goal. For Pittsburgh, Samuel Girard and Ben Kindel scored, and Erik Karlsson put 5 shots on net in 27:04.
Special teams tipped it. San Jose went 0 for 5 on the power play, while Pittsburgh cashed 1 of 3. That's a welcome result for a Penguins club that was 2-7-1 on the road coming in.
