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Special teams fails to
deliver
Sharks losing streak hits four
games
Lack of detail and consistency continues to be the
theme on the Sharks current road trip, and losses continue to mount. San Jose
dropped their 4th straight game, in a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on
Thursday night. The four Sharks Olympians returned to the site of their gold
medal performance, which was seemingly the last time the four players played
with any urgency. The Canucks have struggled of late as well, but the Sharks
lack-luster play turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
The
Sharks top line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau continued to
sputter and as that line goes, so goes San Jose . Each player was on the ice
when the Sharks surrendered the game-winning goal to Vancouver . That goal came
courtesy of Vancouver ’s 4th line. It came as a result of poor defense by
that top line.
San Jose may not have been in that position, had they
stayed out of the penalty box early in the game. The Sharks created problems
for themselves by taking early penalties and then failing to stop the Canucks
on the penalty kill.
A Joe Thornton high-sticking penalty at 8:14 put
the Canucsk in position to open the game’s scoring. The irony is that a
Canuck lifted Thornton ’s stick, causing it to hit Canuck Alex Burrows to
draw the penalty.
Alex Edler through a puck on net through traffic
that beat Evgeni Nabokov a mere 17 seconds into the power play. Nabokov had
several bodies in front of the net screening him, but he also didn’t help
himself by shading to one side of the net.
The Canucks used the same
recipe to score again three minutes later.
Kesler made it 2-0 at 12:14
on the Canucks second power play after Jamie McGinn took a careless holding
penalty. Nabokov stopped a shot in tight, but his teammates sat back and
allowed Vancouver to gain control of the puck. Kessler looped around the left
circle and snapped a shot from the slot, using a screen to slip the puck past
the Sharks netminder.
The Sharks opened the 2nd period on a better
note, cracking the score sheet on a nice power move by Ryane Clowe. The forward
carried the puck up the right wing, then muscled around former Sharks
defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and cut across the slot. Canucks goaltender
Roberto Luongo was forced to go down in order to defend against the cutting
forward. Clowe waited for Luongo to commit before lifting his shot over the
fallen netminder.
Ryan Johnson scored his first goal of the season with
just under 4 minutes left in the period, thanks to the Sharks static approach
to defense. Johnson blew past two defenders in the slot, then punched his own
rebound past Nabokov after driving to the net. No Shark elected to cover him on
his way to the net, allowing the put back.
Luongo robbed Devin
Setoguchi with 10 minutes to play in the 3rd period. Setoguchi was parked on
the left post and a pass through the slot found him and a wide open net. The
Canucks netminder slid to his right, stuffing the sure goal.
San Jose
would cut the lead to 3-2 when Joe Pavelski bagged his 21st goal of the season
with 3:08 left in regulation. The Sharks forward swatted at a rebound in front
of the net, roofing a shot past Luongo from the top of the crease after Kent
Huskins put the puck on net.
The Sharks pulled Nabokov with 1:30 to play and the
Sharks promptly turned the puck over in their own zone, but Pavelski dove to
block an empty-net chance to keep the Sharks alive.
They would
generate one last chance in deep, but Vancouver cleared the puck to send San
Jose to another loss.
Game Notes:
Sharks head coach Todd
McLellan won’t have an opportunity to impose any corporal punishment via
practice, because the Sharks play on Friday night in Calgary . The Flames are
on the outside looking in to the playoff picture, sitting in the 9th spot in
the Western Conference.
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What did you
think of this game? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| VAN |
2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
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| 1st period - 1, VAN,
Edler 4 (Ehrhoff, Kesler), 8:31, (pp). 2, VAN, Kesler 21 (Edler, Dmitra),
12:14, (pp). |
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| 2nd period - 3, SJ,
Clowe 17 (Pavelski, Huskins), 4:00. 4, VAN, Johnson 1 (Rypien, O’Brien),
16:48. |
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| 3rd period - 5, SJ,
Pavelski 21 (Huskins, Setoguchi), 16:52. |
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| 1st period - Burrows,
VAN (tripping), 2:45; Thornton , SJ (high sticking), 8:14; McGinn, SJ
(holding), 11:24; Heatley, SJ (hooking), 14:11. |
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| 2nd period -
Boyle, SJ (roughing), 3:09; Kesler, VAN (roughing), 3:09. |
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| 3rd period -
Kesler, VAN (hooking), 12:59. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Nabokov |
26 |
23 |
| VAN - Luongo |
34 |
32 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
6 |
16 |
12 |
34 |
| VAN |
13 |
9 |
4 |
26 |
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| Referees: Kimmerly,
Peel. Linesmen: Cvik, Nelson. |
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