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Thornton's offensive outburst
snaps skid
Centerman bags two goal and a pair of
assists
The season-high five-game losing streak is no
more. San Jose outlasted a fatigued Anaheim Ducks team at HP Pavilion, taking a
4-1 win before a sellout crowd. Joe Thornton scored twice and added two assists
to lead San Jose. The Sharks opened up a fairly tight game with a pair of goals
in the 3rd period to defeat Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who stopped 33 shots in the
loss.
San Jose threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Ducks, who
arrived in San Jose at 3am on Thursday morning after beating the Vancouver
Canucks the night before. The Sharks out-shot Anaheim 18-9 in the opening
period, but Giguere withstood the hail of rubber.
Torrey Mitchell gave
the Sharks their best chance to score midway through the opening period, by
intercepting a pass at his own blueline right at the end of a Joe Pavelski
hooking penalty, and racing up the ice getting a shot off on the breakaway.
Mitchell was hooked on the play and awarded the first penalty shot of his
career.
That chance would go unfulfilled after Mitchell tried to
squeeze a shot between Giguere's pads, but the Ducks netminder shut the door to
preserve toe 0-0 tie.
A high-sticking penalty to Scott Neidermayer
with 1:46 to play in the period gave the Sharks their second power play of the
night, but they couldn't solve Giguere. Pavelski misfired on a pass through the
slot, trickling the puck toward the Anaheim goal where Giguere easily kicked it
aside.
The Sharks would finally get on the board midway through the
2nd period after Thornton got his stick on a Patrick Marleau shot, deflecting
it through Giguere's five-hole. Marleau was originally credited with the goal,
but the official scorekeeper awarded it to Thornton after reviewing it during
the 2nd intermission.
Marleau would get his own deflection, knocking
down a Douglas Murray shot six minutes later. Parked in the slot, Marleau got
his stick blade waist-high, redirecting the Murray blast into the Anaheim goal
for his 21st tally of the season.
Anaheim tried to lean on their
physical play late in the period. Sheldon Brookbank almost sent forward Dany
Heatley into the Ducks bench with a hit along the boards late in the period,
but Ryane Clowe engaged the Anahaeim defenseman in a spirited scrap.
Heatley would take a high-sticking penalty right before the 2nd intermission,
giving Anaheim a partial power play to open the 3rd period. The Ducks would
cash in when Ryan Getzlaf walked a Bobby Ryan feed right up the right side,
drawing Evgeni Nabokov out of his net, before sliding the puck in to an empty
net. The four Sharks penalty-killers were caught on the far side of the ice,
and a partial screen by Corey Perry in the slot, prevented Marc-Edouard Vlasic
from getting over to cut off the big Ducks centerman.
The Getzlaf goal seemed to take the wind out of the
Sharks sails, who followed that up with a series of bad icing plays. Unable to
muster a way to get the puck past center-ice, the momentum began to shift in
Anaheim's favor.
That would all change after a pair of Ducks penalties
gave the Sharks a brief 5-on-3 power play. Anaheim killed off the first
infraction, then San Jose just missed on a golden chance to score, when Devin
Setoguchi misfired on a wide open net, just as Saku Koivu's tripping penalty
ended.
Koivu would head right back to the box three minutes later for
hooking Pavelski behind the Sharks net, but this time the Sharks would cash in.
Pavelski finally figured out that Giguere's was having a field day
knocking down San Jose's perimeter shots, so he drove the to the net while the
Sharks had the man advantage. His shot attempt in tight was stopped by Giguere,
but Thornton was parked on the doorstep and was able to sweep home the puck for
his 9th goal of the season.
That goal would come with 6:37 remaining
in regulation and essentially broke the Ducks back.
Setoguchi would
atone for his missed scoring chance earlier in the game by depositing a feed
from Thornton past Giguereat 16:11 to ice the game. Thornton created the chance
by intercepting a clearing chance at the Ducks blueline, then hitting Setoguchi
with a pass through the slot after he skated to the left dot. Setoguchi rifled
a shot that hit the top right corner of the net, securing the Sharks first win
in six games.
Game Notes:
Dan Boyle was in the Sharks
lineup and showed no ill affects of the lower body injury he sustained at the
end of the Phoenix game on Saturday night. Team USA General Manager Brian Burke
was in attendance to scout Pavelski, and Ducks players Bobby Ryan and Ryan
Whitney. Burke is trying to finalize his Olympic roster.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| ANA |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
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| 1st period - SJ,
Mitchell (unsuccessful penalty shot), 13:40. |
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| 2nd period - 1, SJ,
Thornton 8 (Marleau, Setoguchi), 9:15. 2, SJ, Marleau 21 (Murray, Thornton),
15:25. |
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| 3rd period - 3, ANA,
Getzlaf 8 (Ryan, Neidermayer), 0:34, (pp). 4, SJ, Thornton 9 (Pavelski, Boyle),
13:23, (pp). 5, SJ, Setoguchi 9 (Thornton, Marleau), 16:11. |
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| 1st period - Ortmeyer,
SJ (boarding), 9:13; Neidermayer, ANA (interference), 10:03; Pavelski, SJ
(hooking), 11:34; Neidermayer, ANA (high sticking), 18:14; . |
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| 2nd period - Brookbank,
ANA (fighting major), 16:22; Clowe, SJ (fighting major), 16:22; Wisniewski, ANA
(roughing), 19:05; Heatley, SJ (high sticking), 19:05; Heatley, SJ (roughing),
19:05. |
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| 3rd period -
Ortmeyer, SJ (tripping), 7:57; Whitney, ANA (roughing), 8:20; Koivu, ANA
(tripping), 9:11; Koivu, ANA (hooking), 12:47. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| ANA - Giguere |
37 |
33 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
21 |
20 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| ANA |
9 |
6 |
6 |
21 |
| SJ |
18 |
11 |
8 |
37 |
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| Referees: McCreary,
Dwyer. Linesmen: Galloway, Nelson. |
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