Here’s the post-game guarantee Tomas Hertl really meant to issue
SAN JOSE — Tomas Hertl on Friday wanted to clarify what sure seemed on the surface like a guarantee the Sharks would be back at SAP Center for Game 7 of their opening round series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
In the immediate post-game euphoria of the Sharks’ 5-2 win over the Golden Knights on Thursday that cut the Golden Knights’ series lead to three-games-to-two, Hertl told Jamie Baker in an interview on NBC Sports California — that could be heard in the arena’s public address system — that, “We have one more game, then come back for Game 7, and I believe it, because we’re a better team than them.”
Hertl, who scored twice Thursday and now has four goals for the series, walked that comment back to some degree Friday, but did issue another guarantee of sorts.
“I already saw it and everybody’s asking now. I said I believe in this team because I think we showed twice how good we can play,” Hertl said. “But I believe we can come back. For sure, not guarantee, but I can guarantee that everybody will put everything in the game in Vegas and try and come back.
“We know it will be really hard, but we’re ready for this challenge. We want to show that we can beat them there, too.”
Tomas Hertl, extremely happy child, guarantees a Game 7 pic.twitter.com/C1fBxfn9wn
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) April 19, 2019
Game 6 is Sunday at T-Mobile Arena, where the Sharks lost games 3 and 4 by a combined score of 11-3. In 13 all-time games in Las Vegas, regular season and playoffs, the Sharks are 4-8-1.
A Sharks win Sunday would force a Game 7 on Tuesday at SAP Center.
Hertl still believes the Sharks are capable of proving they are the better team “if we just play our game.”
“It’s always tough. We just always, first two minutes, they get two goals. It’s always hard because we always try so hard getting goals back and we actually open up more,” Hertl said. “But if we forecheck and play our system, we’ve proved all year long that we can play against anybody and play really well. We showed again last night.”
Hertl did something similar in the Sharks’ playoff series against the Golden Knights last season, only it was after a Game 5 loss in Las Vegas that put the Sharks down three-games-to-two. “We’ll for sure come back, I believe,” he said. “This is a strong team.”
“It happened last year too with the guarantee, but I just believe in this team,” Hertl said. “But we have to now prove it in Vegas.”