Nick Bonino broke a tie late in the third period of Game 1 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.
Nine years ago today, Nick Bonino brought the house down when he broke a tie late in regulation during Game 1 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final between the Penguins and the Sharks.
The Stanley Cup Final was back in the Steel City seven years after Pittsburgh defeated the Red Wings to win the Cup in 2009 and this time around, it didn’t feel like the Penguins were going up against Goliath.
The Penguins were a hot team dating back to December when Mike Sullivan took over as head coach with young Matt Murray in net, a plethora of youth throughout the lineup, no longer young players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang along with the new HBK Line.
The Stanley Cup Final just feels different. I was in attendance for Game 1 of the series with a debt to pay off.
When the game started out, it felt like a feeling out process for the first half of the opening period. Then lightning struck twice for the Penguins as Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary scored goals around a minute apart to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead.
The Sharks wouldn’t go away quietly though, as Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau evened things up at 2-2 heading into the third period.
Enter a long stretch of anguish with the feeling that the next shot could be the one that goes in for either team and potentially change the entire series by winning the first game.
That shot that went in belonged to Nick Bonino, who was a big-time player for the Penguins during his time in Pittsburgh.
One thing I’ll always remember is the absolute pop in the building when the puck went in. Talk about blowing the roof off a venue with one singular moment.