Monday started with a roar and ended with a whimper.
Fans filed into their seats and sent up a roar that approached Game 6 of the Western Conference Final levels. The fans were feeding off a dramatic overtime win not 48 hours prior.
San Jose started strong, carrying that momentum from Saturday over, but it didn’t last.
Ultimately the Penguins made good of their limited chances three times and sent San Jose to the brink of elimination.
As the Sharks went down three-games-to-one Monday night, fans filed out not knowing if they will see their special team one last time.
For that, it will take San Jose winning on the road, something they didn’t do against Nashville, managed twice in St. Louis and haven’t done yet against Pittsburgh.
They don’t know if they will manage to solve the Pens’ speed or find ways to get pucks to the net.
Yes San Jose outshot Pittsburgh 24-20, but there were so many other opportunities that were turned aside by the Penguins’ defense.
“We got to change something and figure out a way to win,” said Chris Tierney. “We’ve only won one out of four. It’s not good enough right now. … We’ve got to do everything a little bit better, a little bit harder and hopefully it adds up.”
San Jose once again has yet to lead in this series, going down 2-0 in Game 1 before losing, then 1-0 in Game 2 before losing and trailing 1-0 and 2-1 in Game 3 before winning in OT.
“We’ve got to believe that we can win a game. We’ve been good on the road all year, so we’re confident in here,” said Logan Couture. “We’re going to go by starting to try to have a good first period.”
They have to win if they will try to for a comeback for the ages and allow these fans to see one last Sharks game at the Tank.
From the opening the Shark Tank was loud.
“You’ve got to stay positive. We’ve got a lot of good leadership in this room and a lot of good character guys,” said defenseman Paul Martin. “We’ve been through a lot. We believe in the group we have in here.”
There was electricity in the air, hoping against hope that this would not be the last time the Sharks would play in the SAP Center.
Metallica rocked the national anthem and the place was ear splitting, close to the atmosphere of Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals.
There was a sense of melancholy in Game 3 with as dominant as Pittsburgh was, but in Game 4, there was belief.
Belief the Sharks could hang and could win.
Just 7:36 into the first, that belief started to waiver as Pittsburgh scored the game’s first goal.
But the energy wouldn’t die.
The Sharks killed a penalty and eventually went on their own power play and the place was rocking.
Then in the second, the air really went out of the arena when nine seconds into a Pittsburgh power play the Sharks were down 2-0.
Even a rally cry from Metallica front man James Hetfield couldn’t get the Sharks moving.
Karlsson gave some life to the building with just under 12 minutes to play when he sent home a goal amidst a scrum of players. The Sharks had rallied from being down 2-0 before, but they did it with two periods of hockey in front of them.
There was a nervous energy as the fans waited for that chance to explode in the third.
That energy got ever more tense as the precious seconds ticked away.
Ultimately it died.
Eric Fehr put the puck past Martin Jones with 2:02 left to play, effectively ending the Sharks’ chances to stage a come back.
San Jose pulled Jones after the goal, but the extra attacker didn’t help.
Game 5 will be played 5 p.m. Wednesday in Pittsburgh. If there will be a Game 6, and that is a big if, it will be 5 p.m. Sunday in San Jose.
Perhaps there will be a reprieve from the governor that will allow Lord Stanley’s Cup to enter the Shark Tank. If it does, Sharks fans will be praying it doesn’t make an appearance Sunday.
If that were to happen, some major changes will be needed and some pucks that haven’t found the back of the net yet will need to start beating Murray.
