Sharks' Vengeful 4-Goal Power Play Ignites Their Game 7 OT Victory

Every so often, a game contains an iconic moment of intensity that precedes its outcome so dynamically that the outcome itself becomes a foregone conclusion.

Think Babe Ruth calling his shot in the 1932 World Series.

We just saw another one in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs' first-round clash between the San José Sharks and Las Vegas Golden Knights.

 

It was the sorta moment that needed a bell in its soundtrack to underscore its impact on what's about to come.

Kinda like the one that got Rocky going in the first sequel:

 

It wasn't as if the Sharks' Logan Couture wasn't already invested in this series ...

 

... but in Game 7, he and his teammates were powered even more by the presence of captain Joe Pavelski, who'd already scored a key goal in this series with his teeth.

San José came into this decider after overcoming a 3-1 series deficit which included an amazing short-handed goal by Tomas Hertl to seal their overtime victory in Game 6:

 

That bitta remarkability set the stage for what came next.

The Golden Knights had staked a seemingly unsurmountable 3-0 lead in the Shark Tank when this happened in what became a third period for the ages:

 

Only twice in NHL history has a team netted four goals during a major penalty:

• Toronto against the Atlanta Thrashers in 2011, which could be one reason they're now the Winnipeg Jets, and
• The New York Islanders against Detroit in 2018.

It was almost as if the absent Pavelski was doing an Obi-Wan Kenobi out there.

 

Beyond a doubt, the Force was with San José.

Countering the momentum, Vegas came back to score a last-moment goal to put this one into overtime, and a game that had already ascended to one of the greatest in Stanley Cup history put a stamp on it:

• Erik Karlsson showed yet again why the Sharks traded for him with a hot dime in crunch time to ...
• Hardly-used Barclay Goodrow, who swooped in from the right and put himself into Sharks' lore.

 

With that 5-4 triumph in the books, last season's feelgood story definitely wasn't feeling so good about a series downfall of their own making.

And Couture's ominous that's one gesture at the Vegas bench to signal Pavelski would be avenged will forever be the defining image of San José's phenomenally relentless comeback.