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Season sweep of Canucks
complete
Thornton assists on all 3 SJ
goals
1/10/08 - by Mike Lee
You'll
have to forgive the Vancouver Canucks if they don't agree with the assessment
that the Sharks are a bad team on HP Pavilion ice. After dropping a 3-1
decision to San Jose on Thursday night, the Canucks finished off a woeful 0-4
season series with the Sharks, regardless of the location. Three different
Sharks scored goals, and Joe Thornton added assists on each goal to pace the
Sharks.
The three assist performance by Thornton was a fitting end to
the day on which the Sharks centerman was named to the NHL's Western Conference
All Star squad. Thornton will be joined by goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who was
named to his 2nd All Star team.
The West's top goaltending vote
getter, Roberto Luongo, opposed Nabokov on Thursday night, but his performance
was anything but All Star-esque. Luongo fell behind early and the Sharks never
looked back.
“I thought we were very efficient, great job
fore-checking, shutting them down in the middle, we created a lot of power play
opportunities by skating hard and challenging their defense," said Sharks head
coach Ron Wilson. "They ended up with a lot of hooking and holding penalties,
so all in all I was really pleased with the effort from
everybody.”
Craig Rivet gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 14:08 of the
opening period on a 4-on-2 rush. The Sharks defenseman took a drop pass from
Mike Grier in the high slot, then slid toward the bottom of the right circle
before uncorking a shot that hit Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo in the left
arm and into the net. Rivet put a nice move on Sami Salo, dancing around the
Vancouver defenseman by dragging a skate.
The Sharks would find
themselves in a precarious position 6 minutes later when Patrick Marleau was
sent off for cross checking and Rivet earned two minutes for slashing just 1:04
apart. San Jose's penalty killers would pump some life into the crowd by
killing off the 5-on-3 with some timely shot blocking.
"This team
obviously has our number this year, they have outplayed us in all areas of the
game," said Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault. "It was an alright start in the
sense that there wasn’t much room out there to move. We had an opportunity
5-on-3 to put the puck in the net. We didn’t and their power play quick
hit us. They got our number and have been playing better than we have been
against them this year and that’s why we didn’t win."
Jeremy
Roenick scored his 503rd career goal on a power play at 5:06 of the 2nd period
after Lukas Kajicek was sent off for hooking Joe Pavelski. Rivet figured in on
the scoring again with an assist after starting the scoring play with a blast
from the blueline that bounced off of Luongo who was patially screened by
Jonathan Cheechoo. The big rebound kicked right to a streaking Roenick, who was
breaking in on the right wing.
Vancouver missed cutting the Sharks lead in half early
in the 3rd period when Alexandre Burrows missed on a breakaway. Burrows weaved
around a diving Nabokov, but couldn't get a shot on goal as he sailed past the
net.
The Canucks didn't do themselves any favors by sending a
continuous stream of players to the penalty box. An Aaron Miller holding
penalty at 5:45 of the 3rd period would setup another Sharks power play goal.
This time, Milan Michalek roofed a chip shot from 3 feet out to extend
the Sharks lead to 3 goals. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau worked the puck
down low, before Thornton put a shot on Luongo as he skated pas the right post.
Michalek scooped up the rebound and lifted the puck over Luongo's left
shoulder.
Ryan Kessler finally solved Nabokov, albeit with a shot from
a crazy angle at 12:25 of the period. With the Sharks firmly in control,
Kessler threw the puck at Nabokov from deep in the right corner, bouncing the
shot off of the right post, then Nabokov.
Henrik Sedin had a breakaway
two minutes later, but Nabokov stoned him by throwing his right leg at the left
post. Sedin threw the deek before breaking left and sliding a backhand shot
toward the Sharks net.
"We played solid tonight, "said Thornton. "Right
from the drop of the puck, we played hard. We made it tough on them getting
scoring opportunities. Just a solid win for us tonight."
Game Notes:
With his 3 assists, Thornton passed Vincent Damphousse (197
assists) and putting him into sole possession of 4th on the Sharks all-time
assist list. Jeff Friesen is 3rd with 201 assists. Craig Rivet extended his
points streak with a goal and an assist on the night. He now has four points in
his last three games (2-2-4). Roenick moved into a tie with Peter Bondra for
37th on the NHLS's all-time list in career goals.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| VAN |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| SJ |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Rivet 4 (Grier, Thornton), 14:08. |
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| 2nd period - 2, SJ,
Roenick 8 (Cheechoo, Rivet), 5:06, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 3, SJ,
Michalek 14 (Thornton, Marleau), 6:16, (pp). 4, VAN, Kesler 11 (Burrows,
Cooke), 12:25. |
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| 1st period - H. Sedin,
VAN (hooking), 1:34; Marleau, SJ (cross checking), 15:09; Rivet, SJ (slashing),
16:13. |
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| 2nd period - Krajicek,
VAN (hooking), 3:42; Edler, VAN (holding), 9:08; Cowan, VAN (high sticking),
12:23; H. Sedin, VAN (holding), 19:22. |
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| 3rd period - Miller, VAN
(holding), 5:45; Jaffray, VAN (high sticking), 13:57; |
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Shots |
Saves |
| VAN - Luongo |
31 |
28 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
21 |
20 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| VAN |
3 |
9 |
9 |
21 |
| SJ |
7 |
14 |
10 |
31 |
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| Referees: Paul
Devorski, Chris Lee. Linesmen: onnie Cameron, Shane Heyer. |
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