SAN JOSE, Calif. — A turnaround season for the Pittsburgh Penguins ended with Sidney Crosby once again holding the Stanley Cup.

Crosby set up Kris Letang’s go-ahead goal midway through the second period and the Pittsburgh Penguins won the fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history by beating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 in Game 6 of the final Sunday night.

Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin, left, is congratulated by Conor Sheary after scoring in the first period of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Penguins clinched the championship with a 3-1 victory. The Associated Press/Marcio Jose Sanchez

“It wasn’t easy getting here, especially the way things started out,” Crosby said. “The first half (of the season) wasn’t easy and I think everyone just stuck together, kept going and found some momentum there in March and continued to keep it going.”

Biddeford’s Brian Dumoulin opened the scoring with a power-play goal and Patric Hornqvist added a late empty-netter. Matt Murray made 18 saves to give the Penguins a championship seven years to the day after they beat Detroit for their third title.

The game ended when Crosby cleared the puck the length of the ice with San Jose on the power play, setting off a wild celebration. All that was left was for Crosby to accept the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP and then the Stanley Cup.

“We tried to keep fighting and slowly started to turn things around,” he said. “Everyone has a part in this. It feels really good to win your last game of the season.”

Three nights after squandering a chance to become the first Pittsburgh team to win a title in front of the home fans in 56 years, the Penguins finished the job on the road just like they did in Minnesota (1991), Chicago (1992) and Detroit (2009) in past title runs.

The championship in Detroit was supposed to be the first of many for a team led by players like Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. But a series of concussions that caused Crosby to miss almost a season and a half, and a run of early playoff exits that included twice blowing 3-1 series leads prevented a second celebration in the Crosby era until now.

This didn’t seem like it would be a season to remember back in early December when the Penguins were the near the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference and Coach Mike Johnston was fired.

But led by Coach Mike Sullivan, the Penguins recovered to make the playoffs as the second-place team in the Metropolitan Division. They beat the New York Rangers in the first round, Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington in the second round, and then rallied from a 3-2 series deficit to beat Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Penguins were in control for almost all of the series against San Jose. They didn’t trail until Game 5. In Game 6, Pittsburgh held San Jose to one shot in the first 19 minutes of the third to preserve a one-goal lead and sealed the win with Hornqvist’s empty-netter.

Pittsburgh owner Mario Lemieux pointed to General Manager Jim Rutherford and a series of moves made over the last year – including acquiring Phil Kessel from Toronto – as the reason the Penguins won it all.

“It’s been an incredible year,” Lemieux said. “We had a rough start the first couple months of the season, then we made some changes. … It’s hard to win this Cup. We’re going to enjoy it for a while.”

The Penguins jumped ahead for the fifth time in six games this series after Dainius Zubrus was sent off for tripping.

Dumoulin took advantage when his point shot eluded Martin Jones for a rare soft goal allowed by the Sharks’ netminder.

The Sharks tied it early in the period when Logan Couture beat Murray with a big shot for his 30th point of the postseason.

Pittsburgh answered 1:19 later when Crosby sent a pass from behind the net to Letang, who beat Jones from a sharp angle.

Related Stories