It had weighed heavily on some of them, notably Pavelski, the Sharks captain, who came into the series a leading Conn Smythe Trophy contender with 13 goals in three rounds. His 14th might have been anticlimactic, coming with the goalie pulled, but it still was a goal and it punctuated the win.
He had contributed. His fellow big names had contributed. And there it was in black and white on the score sheet, the expected names finally listed in all capitals in the places they should have occupied from the start of this round. There was Burns. There was Couture. There, even, was Pavelski, about whom Vlasic said, "Maybe this will open the floodgates for Pavs."
There seemed a burden lifted after the game, even though the Sharks face another must-win game at SAP Center on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports), when they'll look to extend their season, the Stanley Cup Final, to Game 7. They had broken through, individually and as a team. That might mean more confidence going forward, Vlasic suggested. It might mean more points. They hope so.
"I want to try to produce every night," Couture said. "That's my goal when I come to the rink, try and help the team, try and score a goal. I'm sure if you ask [Pavelski], [Thornton], [Burns], [Patrick Marleau], everyone, Tommy Wingels, [Dainius Zubrus], they want to score, they want to help our team.
"We know that we haven't scored many goals, or any, in this series. It's one of the reasons why we [were] down 3-1. We wanted to come. We didn't want the season to end tonight."