The San Jose Sharks’ 4-2 series victory over the St Louis Blues in the Eastern Conference finals has put them in the finals for the first time and four victories away from lifting the Stanley Cup.
Eliminated
The San Jose Sharks advanced to their first Stanley Cup final in their franchise history on Wednesday by beating St Louis Blues 5-2 in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference series.
Joel Ward scored two goals and Martin Jones stopped 24 of 26 shots as San Jose eliminated St Louis 4-2 in front of a crowd of 17,500 at the SAP Center Arena in San Jose.
Stronger
San Jose had gone close to reaching the Stanley Cup finals in 2014, but let slip a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final as they lost the final four games to the Los Angeles Kings.
Logan Couture, the San Jose centre, said: “I really think everything we’ve gone through has made us a lot stronger as a group.”
A great step
Joe Pavelski, the San Jose captain, who scored the opening goal on Wednesday night, said: “You try to learn from experiences. You like to not have to. But that’s the course we’ve taken.
“Now that we’re here, again, this was a great step for us. It was another step. But we realise there’s more out there. That’s what we’re going to turn our attention to.”
Four more wins
Couture concurred with Pavelski that San Jose were not focused on winning the title for the first time. “It’s a great moment for those guys who have put in a lot of work, but we still have another series to go,” he said.
“We still have four more wins to try to get. It’s another step. This is the third one now. We’re ready for that next challenge.”
Schedule
San Jose were due to find out who they will face in the finals last night, with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins playing the deciding game in the Western Conference finals.
The opening game of the Stanley Cup finals is on Monday. If the finals run to all seven games, the final game will be played on June 15.
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