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Old time barn
burner
Sharks & Habs combine for 10
goals
3/3/08 - by Mike Lee
If the
NHL wants to spice up play around the league, hopefully they took note of
Monday night's Sharks - Canadiens game at HP Pavilion. The two teams turned
arguably the most entertaining hockey game of the season. Speed, skill, hitting
and a see-saw battle on the score sheet left the 17,496 that paid to see this
one buzzing after the Sharks held on to beat their guests from Montreal 6-4.
Joe Thornton scored 2 goals and added 2 assists to lead San Jose, who won their
6th consecutive game, their first on home ice since February 9th.
Feisty play with a bombardment of scoring was the order of the day, and the
fireworks went off almost immediately.
Patrick Marleau would score the
games first goal just 56 seconds in to the contest on a highlight reel play
that turned out to be the 3rd prettiest goals of the night. Marleau started a
give-and-go play with Devin Setoguchi just inside the Canadiens blueline,
before streaking past Andrei Markov. Setoguchi pushed the puck up ice to
Marleau, who broke right, then lifted a shot past Montreal netminder Carey
Price.
Tomas Plekanec matched Marleau with Montreal's 1st goal at 2:22
of the period on a deflection off an Andrei Kastsitsyn shot. Plekanec grabbed
the rebound near the riht post and backhanded the shot home.
Thornton
put the Sharks back up just 24 seconds later by banking a shot off Price who
had fallen in the crease. Thornton grabbed a Craig Rivet shot that bounced off
he end boards, then flipped the puck at Price, who was laying flat on his back.
The puck appeared to hit the Canadiens goaltender in the glove before bouncing
into the goal.
San Jose would have a golden opportunity to push their
lead to 3-1 later in the period when Ryan O'Byrne and Markov would take
penalties 42 seconds apart. The Sharks had Price in their crosshairs on the
ensuing 5-on-3, but Thornton bounced a shot off the Canadiens goaltender from
point blank range, then defenseman Brian Campbell drilled Price with a blast to
the chest as the netminder sat in the crease.
O'Byrne would atone for
his penalty with his 1st goal of the season late in the period on a blast from
through traffic from the high slot. Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabokov never saw
the shot as it sailed over his shoulder.
Once again, Thornton put the
Sharks back on top, albeit via the power play variety, this time on a 4-on-3
Sharks advantage 5:04 into the 2nd period. Thornton pumped a shot that squeezed
through Price's pads, but the puck sat just outside the goal. As Jonathan
Cheechoo and Marleau tried to crash the net to punch it home, the Canadiends
cleared it, but Marleau ended up barreling into Price. The netminder had to
retrieve his stick and by the time he reset himself in the crease, Thornton was
able to squeeze off another shot, that found the back of the net.
Plekanec knotted things up at 3-3 with 5 minutes
remaining in the middle period, after the Canadiens showed off a nifty set of
passing. Markov started the sequence with a pass to Alexei Kovalev from left to
right, before Kovalev found Plekanec cutting through the slot. Plekanec
one-timed Kovalev's pass for his 26th goal of the season.
Jody Shelley
countered with his 1st goal of the season on a flukey play. The Sharks enforcer
simply tried to dump the puck into the zone, but he ended up putting it on net.
The puck fell short of the Price, but it bounced off the ice, fooling the
goaltender, the on-ice officials and many of he fans. The shot wasn't ruled a
goal until after referees Tim Peel and Chris Rooney confirmed at center ice.
Replays showed that it clearly hit the back of the net, before whipping back
out in the field of play.
Cheechoo would give the Sharks a 2-goal lead
for the first time of the night, 3:25 into the 3rd period. The former Rocket
Richard Trophy winner took a pass from Thornton at the Montreal blueline, then
undressed former Sharks defenseman Josh Gorges with a move that vaulted the
Sharks winger around the last line of defense for Montreal. Cheechoo made the
most of the chance by lifting a shot past Price for the 5-3 lead.
Montreal refused to go away. Maxim Lapierre would answer Cheechoo's goal with
his 6th of the season 53 seconds later. Shelley fell down at his own blueline,
which allowed Lapierre and Mark Streit to skate in 2-on-1. Lapierre passed the
puck to Streit on the left wing, but the Montreal defenseman fumbled the pass.
Lapierre circled back toward the net and stuffed home the rebound to pull the
Canadiens back to within a goal of the lead.
Thins got hairy for the
Sharks with 4:23 left to play, when Patrick Rissmiller took a tripping penalty
to give the league's top ranked power play a chance to tie the game late. The
Sharks would fend off the first 1:25 of the penalty before Markov would take a
costly tripping penalty himself.
Campbell, the trade deadline
acquisition for San Jose, would introduce himself to the Sharks faithful with
one of the snazziest goals in Sharks history at 18:21 to seal the game.
Campbell took a Thornton dish at the Montreal blueline, then skated toward the
net with Canadiens defenseman Michael Komisarek between him and the net. As
Komisarek tried to poke check the puck away from Campbel, the Sharks defenseman
unleashed the counter-clockwise spin-o-rama move, before backhanding a shot
through Price's skates for his 6th goal of the season.
Game Notes:
Kyle McLaren made his return to the Sharks lineup after missing the
last 5 games, while nursing his knee. Matt Carle, Sandis Ozolinsh and Jeremy
Roenick were healthy scratches.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| MON |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
| SJ |
2 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Marleau 11 (Setoguchi), 0:56. 2, MON, Plekanec 25 (Kastsitsyn), 2:22. 3, SJ,
Thornton 18 (Rivet, Cheechoo), 2:46. 4, MON, O'Bryne 1 (Koivu, Higgins),
17:27. |
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| 2nd period - 5, SJ,
Thornton 19 (Capbell, Pavelski), 5:04, (pp). 6, MON, Plekanec 26 (Kovalev,
Markov), 14:55. 7, SJ, Shelley 1 (Murray, Plihal), 16:35. |
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| 3rd period - 8, SJ,
Cheechoo 20 (Thornton, Michalek), 3:25. 9, MON, Lapierre 6 (Streit, Smolinski),
4:18. 10, SJ, Campbell 6 (Thornton, Cheechoo), 18:21, (pp). |
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| 1st period -
Latendresse, MON (hooking), 5:58; Cheechoo, SJ (high sticking), 6:02; O'Bryne,
MON (hooking), 13:06; Markov, MON (delay of game - puck over glass), 13:48;
Cheechoo, SJ (hooking), 15:16. |
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| 2nd period - Michalek,
SJ (boarding), 3:38; Streit, MON (cross checking), 4:16; Gorges, MON(tripping),
4:38; Pavelski, SJ (high sticking), 7:12; Marleau, SJ (holding), 19:49. |
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| 3rd period - Ehrhoff, SJ
(cross checking), 5:17; Rissmller, SJ (tripping), 15:37; Markov, MON
(tripping), 17:02; Markov, MON (10 min misconduct), 18:21. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| MON - Price |
39 |
33 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
31 |
27 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| MON |
7 |
11 |
13 |
31 |
| SJ |
12 |
17 |
10 |
39 |
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| Referees: Peel,
Rooney. Linesmen: Cvik, Henderson. |
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