"Big goal by [Pavelski] there," Couture said. "They had momentum. There were taking it to us in that third period. They went out there and [Nieto] made a great play, and Pavelski was able to bury it. He's done that all season, and Jones shut the door."
The Sharks took a 1-0 lead at 18:36 of the second period when Couture scored a power-play goal on San Jose's 16th shot of the game. Rinne stopped Pavelski's deflection of Brent Burns' shot from the point but couldn't control the rebound, and Couture scored from close range.
"I thought they were better than us for the majority of that game," Couture said. "Like I said, a lot of guys didn't bring their best effort tonight, and we got bailed out by Jones making some big saves. We spent too much time in our end. We made mistakes that we really haven't been making throughout the playoffs so far. Trying to get fancy through the neutral zone, turning pucks over, not being strong enough in our own end. We weren't our best, but we found a way. Jones was a big part of it."
The Sharks scored 33 seconds after Nashville was penalized for having too many men on the ice. Defenseman Roman Josi, trying to prevent the penalty, came off the ice and over the boards onto San Jose's bench, to no avail. The goal was Couture's fourth of the playoffs and San Jose's eighth with the extra man. The Sharks went 2-for-3 on the power play in their 5-2 victory against Nashville in Game 1.