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Shooting blanks
Shootout still proves fruitless
2/2/06 -
by Mike Lee
Painful, would be the word that best describes what
it's like to watch the Sharks during a shootout this season. Thursday night's
shootout was mercilessly painful after San Jose missed on all five attempts to
get the puck past Minnesota Wild goaltender Manny Fernandez. Brian Rolston
converted on the Wild's fifth attempt, cashing in on the Sharks inability to
score during the NHL's answer to tie games.
It got so bad for the Sharks that Niko Dimitrakos failed to even stick handle
the puck all the way in on net during his shootout attempt. Dimitrakos was
forced to double back and send a weak wrist shot at Fernandez from 15 feet out
after mishandling the puck.
Sharks coach Ron Wilson paraded out Nils Ekman, Jonathan Cheechoo, Joe
Thornton, Dimitrakos and Grant Stevenson in succession and all five failed to
even get the puck remotely close to the goal line. Captain Patrick Marleau
wasn't in Wilson's top five list of shooters because he's already failed on
five shootout attempts this season.
"The biggest story of the game was Manny (Fernandez) stopping five shots in a
row," Rolston said. "All we needed was one and I got it. This was a huge road
win."
What was lost in the misery of this latest Sharks defeat was a stellar
goaltending performance by Vesa Toskala. The Finnish netminder made several
highlight reel saves in regulation and overtime, after his defense repeatedly
hung him out to dry. Toskala stoned Marion Gaborik on three scoring chances,
including one with less than 30 remaining in regulation.
Toskala was actually nursing a 2-1 lead in the 3rd period, when Mark Smith was
whistled for covering the puck with his hand in the crease. That infraction
carries a penalty shot as the punishment, and Gaborik would make the Sharks
pay. The Wild forward snapped a lightning quick shot after racing in on the
ensuing one-on-one faceoff between goaltender and the lone skater.
"I had a break on him and I got it," Gaborik said. "Manny has been Mr.
Consistent all year. He has made some unbelievable saves this year and he
showed it again in the shootout."
After narrowly escaping from a lethargic 1st period, the Sharks would give up a
goal on a missed defensive assignment by Tom Preissing at 2:03 of the 2nd
period. Scott Thornton would answer with a goal for San Jose three minutes
later. Thornton fought for a loose puck in the middle of a scrum before
slipping it past Fernandez.
San Jose grabbed a 2-1 lead on Joe Thornton's 18th goal of the season just 1:14
into the 3rd period. Thornton riffled a slap shot from the top of the left
circle, but the puck appeared to be misdirected by a Wild defenseman.
Fernandez was crossed up on the shot, which slipped under his glove hand for
the goal.
Neither team generated any serious scoring threat in the overtime period, but
that played perfectly in to the Wild's hands. San Jose had been 1-5 in the
shootout this season, so all Minnesota had to do was get through the overtime
period in order to exploit one of the Sharks biggest weaknesses this year.
"Toward the end we were running out of gas but we got a point so I'm not
disappointed," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "I'm not going to view this as a
loss."
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT | SO |
T |
| MIN |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
3 |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 | 0 |
2 |
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| 2nd period - 1, Minnesota, Robitaille 12
(Chouinard, Zyuzin), 2:03, (pp).
2, San Jose, Thornton 9 (Bernier, Murray), 5:00. |
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| 3rd period - 3, San Jose, Thornton 18
(Cheechoo, Ekman), 1:14.
4, Minnesota, Gaborik 20, 14:59 (ps). |
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| Shootout - Round 1 - MIN - M. Koivu - No
Goal (0-0)
Round 1 - SJ - N. Ekman - No Goal (0-0)
Round 2 - MIN - M. Gaborik - No Goal (0-0)
Round 2 - SJ - J. Cheechoo - No Goal (0-0)
Round 3 - MIN - R. Robitaille - No Goal (0-0)
Round 3 - SJ - J. Thornton - No Goal (0-0)
Round 4 - MIN - D. Tjarnqvist - No Goal (0-0)
Round 4 - SJ - N. Dimitrakos - No Goal (0-0)
Round 5 - MIN - B. Rolston - Scores (1-0)
Round 5 - SJ - G. Stevenson - No Goal (1-0) |
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| 1st period - Bouchard, MIN (hooking), 0:36;
Goc, SJS (hooking), 10:07; Bouchard, MIN (hooking), 17:01. |
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| 2nd period - Cheechoo, SJS (tripping), 0:24;
Kuba, MIN (tripping), 2:42. |
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| 3rd period -Ekman, SJS (tripping),
4:00. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| MIN - Fernandez |
23 |
21 |
| SJ - Toskala |
32 |
30 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| MIN |
10 |
12 |
10 |
0 |
32 |
| SJ |
4 |
11 |
8 |
0 |
23 |
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| Referees: Paul Devorski, Tom Kowal. Linesmen: Brian
Murphy, Jay Sharrers. |
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