Nine days ago, Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan lamented the loss of Joel Ward during his season-ending press conference.
“I mean, you know, we miss Ward. Joel Ward — he’s the kind of guy we needed in the playoffs,” MacLellan said. “You know, you make changes, and he’s a guy that we wanted back and we didn’t get back. We missed that skill set.”
Wednesday night, the Big Cheese punched his ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals with his new team, the San Jose Sharks. And he was clutch af.
Ward scored two big goals. First, the Sharks forward scored on a deflection in front of the net past Brian Elliott. It’d give the Sharks a 2-0 lead.
What a tip by Joel Ward to put the @SanJoseSharks up 2. #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/3zTiwL7Rhd
— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) May 26, 2016
Later, Ward gave the Sharks a three goal lead after redirecting home a perfect pass from Logan Couture.
Ward has a pair, and things are looking pretty good for the @SanJoseSharks. #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/wgLisrATGc
— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) May 26, 2016
#SJSharks Joel Ward has now scored 6 career goals in potential series-clinching games
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) May 26, 2016
Joel Ward (@SanJoseSharks) posted consecutive multi-goal games for 1st time in his career (reg. season & playoffs). pic.twitter.com/6QUi3jJN4N
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 26, 2016
The Sharks would hang on and defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 in Game Six to become the Western Conference Champions. This will be Ward’s first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. Former Capital and Alex Ovechkin linemmate, Dainius Zubrus, is also on San Jose’s roster.
The Sharks posed with the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl but did not touch it.
"Thanks but no thanks" #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/qwi1xW8SEF
— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) May 26, 2016
A photo posted by RMNB (@rmnb_blog) on
Congratulations, Wardo.
Three stars! #SJSharks
⭐ @JRandalWard42 🚨🚨
⭐⭐ Patrick Marleau 🍎🍎
⭐⭐⭐ @Logancouture 🚨🍎🍎— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) May 26, 2016
#StanleyCup Final bound! #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/N38qD2UCpo
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) May 26, 2016
Now I’m going to go put this song on and stare at the wall for a while.
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