from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

The series, and the season, will essentially be on the line Saturday in Game 3 in San Jose, where the Sharks need a home victory to avoid falling into the abyss of a 3-0 deficit.

"We've got another level and we're going to have to find it here," captain Joe Pavelski said in a quiet Sharks dressing room after Game 2. "It goes to this next game. They've done their job here at home, but we've got to go win the next one."

That was the message after the game amongst the players in the Sharks' dressing room before the doors opened to the media. The Shark Tank awaits, where the team is 7-1 in these playoffs.

All is not lost.

"Got to take care of things at home. That's what was said. 'Let's go home and do what they did here,''' said defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

The home crowd can't make the Sharks faster, however. Somehow, during the two off-days before Game 3, San Jose has to figure out how to better implement its cycle game and spend more time in the offensive zone. That cycle game was nearly non-existent for the two opening periods Wednesday night before re-appearing, finally, in the third period when Justin Braun tied the game.

But if we're going to be realistic here, we've only seen Sharks hockey for about two out of the six-plus periods they've played so far in the Cup finals.

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