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Ole St. Marcel brings
cheer
No yule loge flame
12/23/06 - by Mike Lee
The mythical figure, borne
from German folklore, who brings delight to people around the globe this
holiday season by handing out gifts made his appearance on Christmas eve eve in
San Jose. That figure being Marcel Goc of course. The fabled goal scorer who
hasn't been seen on the ice for several weeks made a special appearance on
Saturday night, dolling out big hits and goals to the delight of a sold out HP
Pavilion.
After spending Thursday night dreaming of sugar plums and
turning in one of their worst showings of the season, the Sharks got back to
work on the last game before the Christmas break beating the Calgary Flames
4-1. Goc set the games tone early by flattening Dion Phaneuf with a check that
sent the Flames defenseman sprawling into the boards.
"When you're
moving your feet, you're not going to take many penalties," Sharks head coach
Ron Wilson said. "That's what I asked Santa for. Hopefully we can play like
that all the time. It's not that hard."
The Sharks came out with the
fire that was lacking in the 3-0 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday, but they
were just as hospitable early on. San Jose dictated most of the play in the
opening period, but went into the locker room down a goal after giving up a
short handed goal to the Flames late.
Calgary capitalized on a botched
defensive assignment after Rhett Warrener was sent off for cross checking with
under three minutes to play in the period. After grabbing control of the puck
in their own end, Andrew Ference chipped a pass up the right wing boards to
Matthew Lombardi who had slipped behind Matt Carle. Lombardi raced up the ice
uncontested before beating Evgeni Nabokov with his 11th goal of the season.
"That was definitely a new experience for most of us," Flames right
wing Jarome Iginla said. "On the other hand we were able to get some rest and
we were excited about coming here with a chance to get to the top of our
division. We didn't do that because we didn't put enough pressure on the
Sharks. They are a good team and we didn't make it hard enough."
The
Sharks perseverance would turn the tide in the 2nd period. Goc started the
revival with his 3rd goal of the season on a give-and-go play with Curtis Brown
that ended with a shot that sailed over Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff's
right shoulder. Goc carried a Mark Smith pass into the Flames zone before
dropping the puck to Brown and bee-lining it to the Calgary net. Ference had to
pick and choose to defend either Goc or Brown, but a second of indecision cost
him, allowing Brown to feather a feed right back to the Sharks winger.
"I haven't scored for a while, so that was good," Goc
said. "(Curtis) Brown made a good play. I passed him the puck and my defender
took a step toward him, so he gave it back to me and I shot it."
San
Jose would take the lead less than 4 minutes later after Robyn Regehr was
whistled for holding Joe Thornton in the Flames zone. Matt Carle would launch a
shot that caromed off the left post, slipping behind Kiprusoff. As the rebound
skittered across the crease behind the Flames goaltender, Milan Michalek
swatted home an easy put-back for this 11th goal of the season.
"I had
the puck in the corner and saw (Jonathan) Cheechoo," Michalek said. "I tried to
pass it to him but it went all the way to Carle, who shot it. I was there for
the rebound."
The Sharks 4th line would convert again three minutes
into the 3rd period to give the Sharks some breathing room. Curtis Brown pumped
a shot off Kiprusoff's chest, and when the Flames goaltender tried to clear the
puck at his feet, he misread Mark Smith's positioning in context to Ference,
his intended target.
Smith intercepted the pass in the slot as he was
driving toward the net, easily sweeping it into an empty goal.
The
Flames thought they had cut the Sharks lead to 3-2 on a shot that they thought
caught the back of the net before bouncing out front. The goal judges light
came on, but replays clearly showed the puck bouncing off the post.
"We came out flat in our last game but we bounced back with a solid effort,"
Smith said. "As the game wore on they might have slowed down a bit."
Scott Hannan would end any comeback by bagging an empty-netter with 42 ticks
left in regulation.
"We had a lead after the first period and we
didn't push hard enough in the second," Calgary head coach Jim Playfair said.
"We let them back in the game."
Notes:
Former Sharks
television color analyst and Shark Bytes show host Drew Remenda was in the
building for the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. Remenda was shown talking to
several fans during the 2nd intermission and received a boisterous round of
applause from fans.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| CGY |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
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| 1st period - 1, CGY,
Lombardi 11 (Ference, Huselius), 17:55. |
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| 2nd period -
2, SJ, Goc 3 (Brown, Smith), 6:59. 3, SJ, Michalek 11 (Carle, Thornton),
10:14. |
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| 3rd period - 4, SJ,
Smith 3 (Brown), 3:22. 5, SJ, Hannan 1 (unassisted), 19:18. |
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| 1st period - Warraner,
CGY (cross checking), 17:16; Huselius, CGY (hooking), 19:26; Phaneuf, CGY
(roughing), 19:26; Thornton, SJ (roughing), 19:26. |
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| 2nd period - Regehr, CGY
(holding), 8:55. |
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| 3rd period - Amonte, CGY
(cross checking), 13:54; Iginla, CGY (delay of game - puck over glass),
15:44. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| CGY - Kiprusoff |
30 |
27 |
| CGY - empty net |
1 |
0 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
22 |
21 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| CGY |
7 |
9 |
6 |
22 |
| SJ |
8 |
12 |
11 |
31 |
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| Referees: Mike Leggo, Tim Peel.
Linesmen: Lonnie Cameron, Ryan Galloway. |
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