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Sharks finally unload on
Avalanche
Sharks pile on 5 unanswered goals in Game
5 win
Now that’s more like it. The Sharks finally
bum rushed the Colorado Avalanche with the performance everyone has been
waiting for. The top seeded Sharks played a near perfect game on Thursday
night, rolling the Avalanche 5-0 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semi-Final
match-up at HP Pavilion. Logan Couture scored a pair of goals and Evgeni
Nabokov made 28 saves to earn his 7th career playoff shutout.
Nabokov
did most of his work in the 3rd period after his teammates had already put more
pucks than was necessary past Colorado netminder Craig Anderson. The Sharks
erupted for three goals in the middle period, then tacked on two more in the
last 20 minutes to take a 3-2 series lead.
San Jose still has some work to do, but heading into
Game 6 with the opportunity to close out the series is the position they want
to be in. After getting blasted the last week for allowing Colorado to make the
series so close, Thursday night’s win provides an opportunity to take a
more tactical approach to the next game, rather than a panicked
win-to-stay-alive tact.
“You have to invest in the series," said
Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. "It comes off the loss in game one. As you go
deeper and deeper, emotionally you have to be invested in it. And physically
you have to be. Tonight we had some real good board work. We needed to be
physical with the puck so we held onto the puck a lot tonight. We ended up
wearing them down”
Colorado expected the Sharks to come out
firing, but they may not have been prepared for the lopsided opening period.
San Jose would outshoot Colorado 12-2 through the first 20 minutes, but
Anderson managed to keep the game scoreless.
“I feel we got what
we deserved tonight," said Colorado had coach Joe Sacco. "I don’t think we
played well enough to win for 60 minutes.”
Marek Svatos was
credited with one of Colorado ’s shots in the period, when he threw a puck
on net 9 minutes in that clanked off the left post. That would be the only
pressure Nabokov would feel in the period.
Joe Thornton was guilty of
squeezing his stick too tight himself. The centerman was the recipient of a
deflection in the right corner moments later, but he elected to shoot from a
severe angle rather than driving the wide open lane to the goal.
The
Sharks turned up the heat midway through the period, drawing a Brandon Yip
cross checking penalty after a wild sequence behind the Colorado net. San Jose
would fail to cash in, but the momentum was clearly in the Sharks favor.
Patrick Marleau missed cashing in later in the period on a cheapie
when Anderson mishandled a shot that he juggled and dropped dangerously in the
crease before former Shark defenseman Scott Hannan swept it away.
Colorado seemed content on playing the same style of game that allowed them to
take Games 1 & 3, trying to wait out the Sharks and capitalize on their
limited opportunities. That approach was about to fail miserably.
Anderson would hold off San Jose through the first 8 minutes of the 2nd period.
Scott Nichol carried a partial breakaway up ice early on, but Anderson stuffed
the Sharks forward. Devin Setoguchi carried the puck around the Avalanche
defense three minutes later, jamming a chance in close, but once again Anderson
was up to the task.
San Jose would finally find a crack in Anderson 's
armor at 8:25. Couture scored his first career playoff goal by redirecting a
Dany Heatley feed while parked at the top of the crease. Heatley sent in a
bullet from the right wing boards, hitting Couture who had his back to the
goal.
TJ Galiardi would take an ill advised holding the stick penalty
in the offensive zone at 10:15 of the period, putting the Sharks back on the
power play for the 3rd time.
Joe Pavelski would capitalize, pushing
the Sharks lead to 2-0 with a shot from the blueline after Anderson tripped
trying to track the puck on the right side. The goaltender tried diving across
the crease to make the save, but he couldn’t prevent Pavelski from bagging
his 3rd goal of the playoffs.
Setoguchi appeared to give San Jose a
third goal on the ensuing faceoff, after he was tripped by Adam Foote on hi
sway to the net. With the puck in tow, Setoguchi slid into the goal, but
referee Steve Kozari immediately waved it off.
The grinders got in on
the action at 15:30 when Dwight Helminen beat the Colorado defense to a
deflection off the end boards and lifted a shot into a wide open net from
outside the right post. Scott Nichol setup the goal by carrying the puck across
the Colorado blueline. Seeing that Helminen had a step on two Colorado
defenders, Nichol hesitated before sending the puck in wide of the net,
allowing the rookie to take a perfect feed off the end boards.
"It was
a great play by Scotty Nichol on the rush," said Heliminen. "We talked about
getting pucks to the net. That one, he pulled up and I think he saw Anderson
cheating out a little bit, so he thought he'd put one off the wall. It turned
into a great play."
Colorado started to take out their frustrations
with a minute left in the period when Douglas Murray was checked from behind
into netminder Evgeni Nabokov. Tempers flared, but the Sharks came out of the
melee with a power play.
"They were obviously trying to get some of
their guys going or do something for the next game," Murray said of the scrum.
"It's tough for the refs to know what's going on in those scrums. There's a lot
of things happening in different places. I tried to stay cool. It's a three
nothing game, but in today's hockey you see a lot of three-nothing leads
dissapear in a hurry. Especially if you give up the power play. It's playoff
time so you take a punch."
Nabokov made the save of the game 2 minutes into the
3rd period with the Avalanche on a power play of their own. The Sharks
netminder stacked his pads to deny Matt Duchene and maintain his shutout.
Couture made it 4-0 at 10:37 on a put back after Ryane Clowe
bull-dogged the puck around the right side and put a shot that kicked off
Anderson out into the slot. Trailing on the play, Couture simply redirected it
into a wide open net for his second of the night.
"I didn't expect to
score two goals, but it's definitely good to help the team out, said the rookie
forward. "It was a big win for us. I think every shift try and do something,
whether it's in our end to create some offense and create som energy for the
big boys. It's been awesome. Tonight I got to play with Heater and Manny and
they're both great players so it's been fun."
Cody McLeod would a 5
minute major for charging at 11:04, so Colorado head coach Joe Sacco spared his
netminder any further abuse by pulling him for backup Petr Budaj.
Marleau would finally get in the scoring column with a power play goal at 13:24
to cap the game’s scoring. Marleau was parked outside the right post,
where he banged home a Heatley deflection.
The only thing left to be
settled was is Nabokov would bring home the shutout. Colorado did a decent job
of trying to get one past the goaltender. With Scott Nichol in the box for
holding, the Avalanche would put two pucks off the post in the final minute.
Nabokov preserved the goose egg on the last chance by reaching back to cover a
Svatos shot that sat perched in the crease after bouncing off the right post.
Game Notes:
The start time for Game 6 on Saturday was
finally announced. The puck will drop at 8pm in Denver , or 7pm on the West
Coast.
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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 |
| COL |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| SJ |
0 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
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| 2nd period - 1, SJ,
Couture 1 (Heatley, Marleau), 8:25. 2, SJ, Pavelski 3 (Boyle, Setoguchi),
10:21, (pp). 3, SJ, Helminen 1 (Nichol, Murray), 15:30. |
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| 3rd period - 4, SJ,
Couture 2 (Clowe, Setoguchi), 10:37. 5, SJ, Marleau 1 (Heatley, Demers), 13:24,
(pp). |
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| 1st period - Quincey,
COL (hooking), 0:42; Yip, COL (cross checking), 10:46. |
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| 2nd period - Galiardi ,
COL (holding the stick), 10:15; Hannan, COL (roughing), 18:52: Hannan, COL
(roughing), 18:52; McGinn, SJ (roughing), 18:52. |
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| 3rd period -
Demers, SJ (holding) 0:22; Quincey, COL (interference), 6:27; McLeod , COL
(charging major), 11:04; Nichol, SJ (slashing), 14:09; Nichol, SJ (holding),
18:00. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| COL - Anderson |
33 |
27 |
| COL - Budaj |
4 |
3 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
28 |
28 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| COL |
2 |
9 |
17 |
28 |
| SJ |
12 |
17 |
8 |
37 |
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| Referees: Devorski,
Kozari. Linesmen: Nansen, Heyer. |
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