Evander Kane slumping, power play miserable as Sharks drop Game 5

The team is Las Vegas’ first major sports franchise, and defying some predictions, locals have filled the stands game after game.

That trend came to an abrupt end in Game 5 on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena, in which the Sharks were simply out-battled and outplayed all over the ice in a 5-3 loss.

“I had a great view, I was right behind it, it was great, I was so happy to see it going in”, Fleury said.

Fleury won his second and third Stanley Cup rings with the Pittsburgh Penguins the past two seasons, but spent most of the 2016 playoffs as the backup to Matt Murray and was replaced by Murray in the 2017 Eastern Conference Final against the Ottawa Senators.

“We made ourselves a good team”, Fleury said. Vegas set the tone in the first period, outshooting the Sharks 15-7, outhitting them 26-14, and taking a 1-0 lead. With eight more wins, they will hoist the trophy, and wouldn’t that be something to behold?

After scoring 28 goals in seven games against Toronto and six in the Round 2 opener, Boston was held to a single goal each in back-to-back games. Aaron Dell has given up two goals on 28 shots faced and Martin Jones has allowed 20 goals on 272 shots.

“We fixed some things and it was a better team game”, Burns said. “We just couldn’t score and then they ended up getting the first goal and then we couldn’t find many more Grade As after that”. Alex Tuch scored twice for the Golden Knights, who gave up three goals in a 6:09 span of the third period to make it interesting before Jonathan Marchessault’s empty-netter.

His Vegas counterpart, Marc-Andre Fleury, has been similarly stellar with some lesser moments.

Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) skates toward Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) during the second period of Game 3 of an NHL second-round hockey playoff series in Boston, Wednesday, May 2, 2018.

“We competed harder all over the ice”, Couture said. “They’re all big. Obviously, it was nice to be home and get that win”. Let us know what you think! This year, they got bounced with two-thirds of their top line dinged up. But the late-game charge gave them a taste of what they’ll be up against in trying to win their fourth game of the series in San Jose on Sunday. Add “advance to the Western Conference final in first season” to the Golden Knights’ scroll-length list of accomplishments.

“I wasn’t too happy with a lot of it to be honest with you”, Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. They better be ready (for Game 3) because we didn’t show up for 45 minutes tonight.

When asked if he meant that he “for sure” wants to go to Game 7 or he “for sure” thinks the team will force a Game 7, Hertl laughed and cut off the question.

And the weekend will wrap up with another Golden Knights game on Sunday night. Vegas then had a delayed celebration for the goal that made it 2-0.

The Sharks have been a solid offensive team in the postseason so far as they come in ranked 6th in the league in scoring at 3.33 gpg, while also ranking 3rd in shots taken (34.8 spg) and 5th in power play conversions, converting on 25.0% of their chances.

Playing catch-up, Couture registered assists on all three of the Sharks’ goals Friday. After blocking a shot by Dylan Demelo, Fleury pushed the puck to Deryk Engelland behind the net, rather than covering it up.