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Sharks fans treated to
goaltending clinic
Nabokov & Bryzgalov
dazzle
Monday night’s Sharks showdown with the
Phoenix Coyotes turned into a pre-Olympic goaltending demonstration for Team
Russia. Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov, both named to Russia ’s Olympic
hockey team squared off at HP Pavilion and put on a combined clinic for the
sellout crowd.
Bryzgalov turned aside 36 shots and Nabokov countered
with 31 saves, but it was the Sharks netminder who stood tall in overtime,
where he blanked a full 2-minute Coyotes power play, and then in the shootout,
denying all three Phoenix shooters to take a 3-2 victory.
“I
thought it was a heck of a game for both teams," said Sharks head coach Todd
McLellan. "Goaltending…Bryzgalov and Nabby both showed why they are both
Olympians. A tremendous game at both ends. The penalty kill for both sides was
very sharp…very good. I thought it was a very intense game, A lot of
battles a good game for us to play in. Nice to come out on the winning end of a
shootout. We haven’t done that in a long time.”
The game made
it to overtime after the Sharks blew a 2-0 2nd period lead, then failed to get
the go-ahead goal in regulation, even though they out-shot Phoenix 19-6 in the
3rd period.
The Sharks scored only their second goal of the season in
three games against Bryzgalov at 2:54 of the 1st period on a Devin Setoguchi
put back from in tight. Frazer McLaren put the puck on net with Setoguchi
parked in front of the Coyotes goaltender, creating a deflection down low.
Setoguchi scooped up the loose puck and slipped it past Bryzgalov for hist 10th
goal of the season.
"You gotta work and do the little things," said
Setoguchi. "If you do that, you're going to get the ice time. You're going to
get rewarded. When you lose track of the work and doing the little things, you
find yourself not playing that much. I have to make sure that's what I'm doing
every night."
Douglas Murray, the Sharks latest Olympian, knocked Petr
Prucha into the Olympic break with a hit at the Sharks blueline midway through
the period after the Coyotes winger skated into the Sharks zone with his head
down.
Bryzgalov stole a goal from Joe Thornton with just over five
minutes to play in the period by sliding to his right and snaring a one-time
chance that was destined for the Phoenix net.
Setoguchi just missed
bagging his second goal of the game with a minute left in the period after Joe
Pavelski slid a pass to him in the slot. He would be checked into the corner
boards and retaliate with a slash that put the Coyotes on the first power play
of the game.
The Sharks would kill of the penalty, but Torrey Mitchell
would put Phoenix back on the power play 4:13 into the 2nd period, negating a
Sharks goal. Mitchell tried forechecking Keith Yandle behind the Coyotes net,
knocking the Phoenix defender down with a leg whip. He would grab the puck and
feed it into the slot for a one-time chance that beat Bryzgalov, but the
whistle sounded, for Mitchell’s infraction.
I thought both teams
played really hard," said Nabokov. "It was almost like a playoff game. A lot of
scrums. A lot of hitting. A lot of battles around the net and on the boards. I
thought we did a really good job."
Joe Pavelski would get that goal
back on the ensuing Phoenix power play, by picking Yandle’s pocket at the
Sharks blueline, then racing up ice and putting a backhand chance past
Bryzgalov for the short-handed goal at 5:17.
Thornton almost made it
two short-handed tallies on the on another short-handed try, but he raced up
ice at the end of a shift and ran out of gas as sent a weak shot wide of the
net.
“It was a very competitive game right from the get-go," said
Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett. "The building was energized early, the fans
were in it early and it was a very good game. We made a couple of mistakes to
get behind but I like the way our guys played back into it.”
San Jose was buzzing after taking the two goal lead,
but the Coyotes cut the San Jose lead in half when Ed Jovanovski sent a shot in
from the blueline and was tipped past Evgeni Nabokov by Petr Prucha in front of
the net.
A delay of game penalty to the Coyotes with four minutes left
in the period setup a chance for the Sharks to extend their lead, but the power
play misfired, and Phoenix countered as soon as the infraction expired.
Scottie Upshall served the penalty, and took a clearing puck at center
ice and sliced into the Sharks zone before cutting across the slot. He slid a
pass over to Shane Doan on he right post, where the Phoenix captain jammed it
past Nabokov who was caught playing too far out of his net. Just like that, the
Sharks 2-0 lead had evaporated.
"I think in the other two games we
played against them I think they gave us a little more trouble than they did
here tonight," added McLellan. "We have been working hard on coming out of our
own end and theres some polish still to be put on that. But it’s slowly
getting better. They a re a very strong emotional forechecking team and I think
it’s obvious why they are where they are in the standings.”
Martin Hanzal would end the period with an elbowing penalty, which carried over
into the 3rd period. Jovanovski would follow that up by plowing Thornton from
behind to draw a roughing penalty, which gave the Sharks a two-man advantage
for 26 seconds. Phoenix would kill off both penalties with assistance from San
Jose ’s inability to get the puck near Bryzgalov.
The Coyotes
caught the end of a shift late in the 3rd period, keeping the puck in the
Sharks zone for 2 minutes, but Ryane Clowe was able to skate it safely out.
Dany Heatley almost converted on the ensuing play in the Coyotes zone before
Bryzgalov stoned Marleau for the third time in the game with 3:28 to play.
In the overtime period, Dan Boyle just missed on a chance in tight,
but his shot sailed wide right. Setoguchi would take a bad tripping penalty
moments later to put the Coyotes back on the power play.
Phoenix just
missed on a Yandle shot that rang off the crossbar, then Nabokov followed it up
with a pair of big glove saves on Doan blasts. San Jose would kill off the
penalty, then turn on the jets in the Coyotes end of the ice. San Jose threw
several shots on net, but Bryzgalov stood tall.
The mind set is always
to kill the penalty and I thought the boys did a hell of a job sacrificing the
body," said Nabokov. Dougie (Murray) blocked that shot, and we were aggressive.
That's what we like and we killed the penalty.
In the shootout Nabokov
stopped Peter Mueller with a nifty glove save, waving his mitt at the puck to
snatch it out of the year. Pavelski followed that by snapping the puck past
Bryzgalov for a goal. Nabokov went back to the glove to deny Radim Vrbata on
another shot that was headed for the top right corner. Dan Boyle had a chance
to end it, but he tried one too many moves that failed to fool Bryzgalov.
Nabokov took matters into his own hands by shutting the door on Robert Lang,
turning aside a weak forehand shot by the Coyotes forward.
“When
you don’t get two (points) you always feel like you left one out there,
that’s the reality of the business," said Tippett. "In the 65 minutes that
were played, we feel like we competed very hard and it was a hard fought
battle. Unfortunately we didn’t get two but we’ll take our one and
get ready for tomorrow night.”
Game Notes:
Phoenix
took a 1-0 shootout win over San Jose back on October 12th
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
SO |
T |
| PHO |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| SJ |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Setoguchi 10 (McLaren, Blake), 2:54. |
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| 2nd period - 2,
Pavelski, 7 (unassisted), 5:17, (sh). 3, PHO, Prucha 7 (Jovanovski, Hanzal),
9:20. 4, PHO, Doan 10 (Upshall), 18:22. |
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| Shootout - PHO: Mueller
(miss), Vrbata (miss), Lang (miss). SJ: Pavelski (goal), Boyle (miss). |
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| 1st period - Setoguchi,
SJ (slashing), 19:08. |
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| 2nd period - Mitchell,
SJ (tripping), 4:13; Vrbata, PHO (hooking), 12:28; Nichol, SJ (holding the
stick), 12:28; Upshall, PHO (holding), 16:04; Hanzal, PHO (elbowing),
19:27. |
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| 3rd period -
Jovanovski, PHO (roughing), 1:03. |
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| Overtime - Setoguchi, SJ
(tripping), 1:43. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| PHO - Bryzgalov |
38 |
36 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
33 |
31 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| PHO |
9 |
14 |
6 |
4 |
33 |
| SJ |
10 |
8 |
19 |
1 |
38 |
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| Referees: Kimmerly,
Watson. Linesmen: Pancich, Rody. |
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