Inside the Cage: Striking First

The Sharks and Golden Knights have reached the nitty-gritty portion of their second-round playoff series.
Both teams are plenty accustomed to each other after five games. Each knows what the other is trying to do. Each knows what works, and what still needs adjustments. And both teams are getting a little cranky when they see those same opposing uniforms by now, too. In other words, it's time to decide this thing.
The Sharks host Game 6 late Sunday afternoon knowing it's a must-win. If San Jose can knot the best-of-seven series it's back to Las Vegas for the Sharks' 11th all-time Game 7 on Tuesday, and obviously the first for the expansion Golden Knights.
San Jose would be leading the series - and with a chance to close out at home - if the Sharks had imposed their will longer against Vegas in Game 5 on Friday night. But instead the Sharks fell into a familiar early hole, and despite rallying from four down to make it a one-goal game late, they fell 5-3.

Head coach Peter DeBoer termed his team bunching three goals in a 6:09 span of the final period as "window dressing."
"The bottom line is we have to play harder for longer stretches," DeBoer said. "We've got to go back, win a game, and find a way in Game 7."
That's a lot to chew off in one bite. Broken down, here's what needs to happen:

ONE:

The Sharks have to get off to a start that will lead to results on the scoreboard, never mind all the acrobatic saves Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury tends to make early on. The Golden Knights have scored the game's all-important first goal three times, and built leads of 7-0, 2-0 and 4-0 thereafter. DeBoer has talked about how his team is chasing the game and the series.
"I don't know if we're not ready or something, but they're starting almost every time with leads," Sharks forward Tomas Hertl said. "It's tough hunting down in the playoffs. I don't know what's the issue, but we have to be ready."
Vegas jumped out in Game 1 at 4:31 with the first of three goals in a span of 91 seconds. It never stopped on the way to a 7-0 victory. The Golden Knights scored at 17:59 of the first period in Game 2 and added another one 26 seconds into the second before the Sharks rallied for a 4-3 win in double overtime.
San Jose finally broke on top first in Game 3 when Timo Meier struck on the power play at 6:59 of the second period. But Vegas responded with three goals in less than five minutes during the same period, and eventually won 4-3 in overtime.
Marcus Sorensen and Joonas Donskoi scored at 13:37 and 19:54, respectively, in the first period of Game 4 - an eventual 4-0 series-evening win for San Jose. But the Golden Knights were at it again in pivotal Game 5 when James Neal broke the ice just three ticks before the first intermission. And Vegas' lead swelled to 4-0 by the middle of the third period.
"There's some things we've tried to do in this series to take care of the neutral zone that for us is an important part," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. "We just weren't clean enough there and it fed their game early on. It put us on our heals and got us running around too much."
"We can't play the last 10 minutes hoping we'll score four goals in the last 10 minutes," Hertl added.

TWO:

The Sharks can't stop Vegas top forward line of Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith, and they're running out of time to figure it out. The trio have combined to score seven goals and 22 points with 55 shots on goal. All the other Golden Knights have combined for 114 shots.
With last change at home, DeBoer will again look to get his shutdown pair of defensemen - Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun - against the Karlsson line. And he'll likely lean on Logan Couture's forward line to support Vlasic and Braun.
Staying out of the penalty box and making the Golden Knights' top group earn what they can at even strength is preferred, but this series is getting called tight. Both San Jose and Vegas have been assessed 30 minor penalties - an average of six per game - in addition a five-minute major and two 10-minute misconducts for the Sharks and a 10-minute misconduct for the Golden Knights.
"Are we taking more penalties than they are?" DeBoer asked. "There are a lot of penalties in the series. I don't have the answer to that."
"We can be a little more disciplined," Pavelski added. "Some of them are penalties, some are questionable. There's calls going both ways. We've got to be better, just keep playing hard, keep going to the net hard and stay out of the box when we can."

THREE:

There is still time to buck history that's not on the Sharks' side. San Jose has advanced only once in 12 tries when trailing 3-2 in a series (1995 against Calgary). The Sharks are 12-19 when facing elimination, and have lost their last two such games at home. And San Jose is only 6-18 in Game 6 (3-8 at home).
"It's not over yet," Hertl said. "We've got a home game now, we have to start right away and I believe we'll come back for Game 7."
What's happened in the recent past - the first five games - has much more bearing on how this will turn out.
"Regardless of what the neutral zone looked like, X's and O's or anything else, we have to player harder for a longer stretch that we did," DeBoer said afterward on Friday. "We didn't play hard enough for long enough and that's why we lost."
"We want to play our game for 60 minutes and control the game," Sorensen added.