The Penguins have only lost twice this season when leading after two periods. The second time was Saturday night in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. And as a result, the Sharks have new life with a chance to even the series Monday night with their ninth home win in their past 10 playoff games.
Stanley Cup Playoff Odds at BookMaker.eu.
Pittsburgh Penguins +120
San Jose Sharks -140
Over/Under 5.5
ODDS ANALYSIS
In another nail-baiter between the clubs that has seen the home team win every game so far, the Sharks held up their end of the deal winning Game 3 in overtime to close the gap to 2-1. San Jose improved to 8-2 at SAP Center this postseason and enters Monday’s Game 4 favored at -140.
The top two scoring teams in the postseason had the standard total of five jacked up a half-point and haven’t cashed an over ticket yet. One team will have to score four goals for over bettors to enjoy a win, and the way this series has played out, that may not happen. In fact, the Penguins have played below the total in each of their last four games not scoring more than three times in any of them.
GOALIE REPORT
His teammates felt he was solid, but Pittsburgh netminder Matt Murray was his own worst critic after Saturday’s Game 3 overtime loss in which he gave up three goals on 26 shots. Murray knows he could be better. “I don’t want to say I didn’t give up a bad goal or had a bad game necessarily. There’s always something you could have done better.”
The stinger was Joel Ward’s third-period marker that tied the game. A seemingly harmless shot from just inside the blueline eluded Murray and squirted by him after the Penguins had nearly killed off a four-minute Sharks’ power play. He did make some nice stops after that, but Pittsburgh had controlled the game to that point.
Martin Jones has given the SAP Center faithful a show in the playoffs, yielding just 17 tallies on his way to posting an 8-2 record with two shutouts, a 1.74 goals against average and .938 save percentage. He was stellar again on Saturday night stopping 38 of 40 shots as San Jose crept back in the series.
Jones has been a busy man against the speedy Penguins stopping 106 of 113 shots. In fact, he’s seen more shots in the first three games against Pittsburgh than he faced in the first six games of the St. Louis series. Jones has delivered a .938 save percentage in the series and has often been the difference maker. He’ll need to continue at this pace to keep the Sharks in the hunt.
LIVE BETTING
The Penguins have done an excellent job of keeping several of the Sharks’ top scorers off the scoresheet, with Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Brent Burns all relatively quiet. A lot of that has to do with Pittsburgh’s willingness to block shots.
Defenseman Ben Lovejoy said the Pens are a team willing to do whatever it takes to win. “We’re ready to block shots at any time. I’m ready to take a Burns slapshot to my face.” Pittsburgh blocked 38 shots on Saturday after averaging 17.5 blocks in the first two contests. That effort keeps the shots on goal down and hinders San Jose’s ability for deflections and rebounds. Pavelski, Couture, Burns and Joe Thornton are a combined 0 for 28 on shots.
QUICK PICK
San Jose benefitted from some questionable goaltending from Murray in Game 3 and needed an overtime winner to grab their first victory in the series. If not for the stellar play of Jones, the Sharks would be staring at a 0-3 deficit. Instead, they can even the series but need their big guns to make an appearance. Both teams have done a nice job of shutting down the others goal scorers with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin also held off the goal-scoring sheet.
The Sharks have won eight of their last nine playoff games at SAP Center and Pittsburgh’s Murray has bounced back well after defeats, going 4-0. Lesser known players have stepped up with Joonas Donskoi the hero Saturday night. It’s time for the big boys to play hockey and the Penguins to put to rest a skid that has them 1-12-1 in their last 14 games in San Jose.
NHL Odds: Pittsburgh 4, San Jose 2
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