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Toskala chased in
rout
Edmonton scores 5 unanswered in 6-3
win
5/11/06 - by Mike Lee
The firm
grasp the Sharks once had on their Western Conference Semi-Final series with
the Edmonton Oilers has been reduced to a limp-wristed hope that they'll be
able to snap out of the funk that has enveloped them since they lost in triple
overtime on Wednesday night. San Jose opened up a 3-1 lead on the Oilers in
Game 4, then kicked their skates up and enjoyed a scoring show put on by the
host Edmontonians. The Oilers would rally for five unanswered goals to crush
the Sharks 6-3 at Rexall Place on Friday night.
San Jose did
everything they wanted to do to open the game even though they were outshot by
the Oilers by a heavy margin in the 1st period. San Jose only mustered two
shots on goal in the period, but they connected on two of them to jump out to
an early 2-0 lead.
Nils Ekman decided to finally join the party and
put on an offensive show in the first seven minutes of the game. He started by
setting up the game's opening goal with a nifty move inside the Oilers zone,
before feathering a pass to Joe Thornton across the slot. Thornton deposited
the pass for the game's opening goal.
Ekman would score himself just
under three minutes later when he took a faceoff win by Patrick Marleau and
snapped it past Oilers netminder Dwayne Roloson. Marleau swatted at the drop,
poking the puck past the two Oilers defenders stationed on the right circle's
perimeter near the slot. Ekman skated past them toward the goal, grabbing the
puck and beating Roloson just inside the left post.
Shawn Horcoff
would deflect a Jason Smith shot past Vesa Toskala at the 12:55 mark to cut the
Sharks lead to 2-1, but Edmonton generated few legitimate scoring chances in he
period even thought they outshot San Jose 15-4 in the period.
Jonathen
Cheechoo would score his third goal of the playoffs midway through the 2nd
period after Thornton intercepted a clearing attempt by Chris Pronger in the
Edmonton zone. Thornton skated around the back of the Oilers net from left to
right, before hitting Cheechoo with a pass that the winger one-timed past
Roloson.
It was all down hill from their for the Sharks.
Michael Peca would throw a prayer at Toskala from a
severe angle near the left corner at 12:28, but the puck kicked off of
Toskala's left pad and trickled in to the back of the net.
"It was
just a matter of time before we got some bounces," said Peca. "I think we are
doing a much better job getting pucks to the net and getting our forecheck
going. I think they seemed a little too satisfied with their start, but one
thing we have been all year is resilient."
The Sharks narrowly missed
pushing their lead back to two goals when Sergei Samsonov was whistled for
hooking at 13:29. The Sharks power play had a golden opportunity to score, but
Thornton rang a shot off the left post. As they tried cycling the play back to
their own blueline, the puck kicked out of the zone just as Samsonov was
stepping out of the box.
As the Oilers winger sprinted to the puck as
it crossed the Sharks blueline, Toskala made a costly decision and tried to
skate out and swat the puck out of his own zone. He got to the puck first, but
his clearing attempt hit Samsonov in the chest. The rebound bounced toward the
open Sharks goal, where Samsonov easily gathered it in and backhanded the
equalizer.
"Everybody makes mistakes. It's a new game on Sunday," said
Toskala. "I have been playing good for three or four months. I will not let one
mistake at the blue line destroy my confidence."
Jason Smith, Ales
Hemsky would within the first eight minutes of the 3rd period, which ended
Toskala's day. Forgotten goaltender Evgeni Nabokov would replace Toskala, and
promptly allowed Jarred Stoll to score on a power play with six minutes to
play.
"We were guilty of trying to sit back and be comfortable with
the lead," Sharks forward Scott Thornton said.
"It gets them flying to
San Jose feeling the same way that we did flying to Edmonton and realizing how
important that next game is," said Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish. It will
be the first time in that game in San Jose we've had any opportunity in the
series to take hold of it."
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
| EDM |
1 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
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| 1st period - 1, San
Jose, Thornton 2 (Ekman, Cheechoo), 3:47. 2, San Jose, Ekman 2 (Marleau), 6:40.
3, Edmonton, Horcoff 3 (Smith, Pronger), 12:55. |
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| 2nd period -
4, San Jose, Cheechoo 3 (Thornton, Rissmiller), 9:02. 5, Edmonton, Peca 1
(Moreau, Torres), 12:28. 6, Edmonton, Samsonov 3, 15:35. |
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| 3rd period - 7,
Edmonton, Smith 1 (Samsonov, Laraque), 2:57. 8, Edmonton, Hemsky 3 (Smyth,
Smith), 8:19. 9, Edmonton, Stoll 3 (Spacek, Pronger), 14:00, (pp). |
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| 1st period - Peca, EDM
(interference), 13:56; Marleau, SJS (hooking), 15:00. |
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| 2nd period - Torres, EDM
(delay of game), 1:02; Cheechoo, SJS (holding), 9:33; Samsonov, EDM (hooking),
13:29. |
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| 3rd period - Carle, SJS
(roughing), 5:42; Rissmiller, SJS (hooking), 12:35; Nieminen, SJS
(cross-checking), 13:13; Moreau, EDM (holding the stick), 17:50. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Toskala |
31 |
26 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
4 |
3 |
| EDM - Roloson |
25 |
22 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
4 |
15 |
6 |
25 |
| EDM |
15 |
9 |
11 |
35 |
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| Referees: Paul Devorski, Don
VanMassenhoven. Linesmen: Jay Sharrers, Mark Wheler. |
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