Martin Jones Overcomes Shaky Start to Boost Sharks' Hopes in Game 5 Steal

PITTSBURGH — After the game's first few minutes, the snark was thick against the goaltenders of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Matt Murray and Martin Jones each allowed two goals on the first four shots they faced, and cracks about this being a "last shot wins" kind of game against two sieves made the rounds of Consol Energy Center. 

Martin Jones played the rest of the game as if he took it personally.

On a night in which thousands packed the area outside Consol not to mention inside, some with 56 years of pent-up energy stored from the last time a Pittsburgh professional team won a championship on city soil, Jones and the San Jose Sharks kept the corks in the champagne bottles. The Sharks won 4-2 and Jones made 44 saves, including the final 42 shots he saw. 

Bill Mazeroski, whose famous walk-off homer against the Yankees for the Pirates in 1960 marked the last time a championship was won in Pittsburgh, was in the building. But he left disappointed along with the rest of the black-and-gold partisans who broke the decibel meters at times nonetheless.

So, yes way, Jose, it's back to Silicon Valley for a Game 6 Sunday night at SAP Center, where the Sharks will enter with hockey's most prized playoff possession: a hot goalie.

"He gave us the chance to win tonight," a tired-but-relieved looking Paul Martin said in the Sharks dressing room. "He's very calm. He's got the quiet confidence about him. He just goes about his business. We trust him back there."

Jones, in his first year with the Sharks after serving as the backup to Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick for two seasons, smothered everything that came his way, but he had some luck, too, especially when Phil Kessel hit both posts with a shot that would have tied it 3-3.

"There was a lot of stuff around the net tonight. I thought everybody did a good job battling around the net," Jones said. "They throw a lot of pucks at the net. That's just the way they play."

Jones, a thin reed of a man, listed at 6'4", 187 pounds, typifies today's modern goalie. With the speed of the game, coaches don't want big, bulky goalies anymore. The less weight to carry around in the crease, the more flexibility and agility, the better. The fact most goalies still look like sumo wrestlers anyway, with all that puffy gear on, makes it easier for the skin-and-bones guys to thrive in the game. Penguins rookie Matt Murray has the same kind of physique.

Jones was at his best in the second period, in which Pittsburgh outshot San Jose 17-8. The Sharks came into the dressing room after one period with a 3-2 lead, which at the time looked like it would hold up as well as a pier with legs made of toothpicks at high tide. After Carl Hagelin tied the game 2-2 at the 5:06 mark of the first, wiping out a 2-0 Sharks lead built within the first three minutes, the Penguins never found the back of Jones' net again.

"We needed some big-game performances from guys. Jonesy was one of those guys in a tough environment," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "I thought we got big games from some other people, too."

Logan Couture was one. He assisted on Brent Burns' goal at 1:04, the first time in the series San Jose got the opening goal. He scored San Jose's second goal at 2:53 and assisted on Melker Karlsson's game-winner at 14:47 of the first. Couture leads all NHL playoff scorers with 29 points.

"I want to try to produce every night. That's my goal when I come to the rink, help the team try to score a goal," Couture said.

The Penguins hurt themselves late, especially when Hagelin took a hooking penalty with 5:56 left in the third. While the Sharks didn't do much on the power play, they seemed fresher to withstand the final two minutes in which Murray was pulled for the extra attacker. The Sharks did a good job, finally, of taking away the Penguins' time and space, and Joe Pavelski finished things off with an empty-netter.

"We couldn't seem to find that third goal," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "But I give our players a lot of credit. We stayed with it throughout the course of the game. It was just one of those nights we couldn't find that goal. They're a very good team. They have good players. I thought for most of this game and most of this series, for that matter, I think our guys have done a really good job as far as making it difficult to make any sort of clean plays coming out from below the goal line."

Sullivan said he had no thoughts of pulling Murray in favor of Marc-Andre Fleury in the chaotic first period. There would seem little chance of him starting Fleury in Game 6, but Murray's play and overall inexperience no doubt will make for tempting off-day stories for some second-guessers in the media leading into Game 6.

The other major key for the Sharks in this one was just getting out to a lead. It hadn't happened all series, and Martin said it made a big difference—even though the lead didn't last long.

"I think we were able to step back, even when they tied it, and know that we might be all right," said Martin, who spent five years playing for the Penguins before signing with the Sharks last summer. "When we get on the board early, it changes the way we play. We were able to play with more confidence maybe. It's nice to be able to bring it back to home ice. Hopefully, we'll carry some momentum with us and fix some of the things we still need to fix."

The Sharks are still in a hole. The Penguins can still afford to lose a game and know they'll be right back here for a Game 7. But the hole is a little shallower now, and with a hot goalie, anything is possible for a hockey team.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report