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McLellan's odd move dots
another loss
Sharks fall to Avalanche in
shootout
Todd McLellan is starting to get desperate. Already
forced to juggle his lines in order to generate any signs of life from his
team, the Sharks head coach resorted to using 4th line forward Brad Winchester
in the shootout on Tuesday night in Colorado. Winchester was called upon after
Daniel Landeskog put the Avalanche up in the 5th round of the shootout. With
the game on the line, Winchester clanked his shot off the right post to hand
the Sharks their 7th loss in the last 9 games.
The game would never
have even made the overtime period, much less the shootout, if San Jose held on
to the lead. That wasn't the case, as Colorado scored a pair of 3rd period
goals to erase a 2-1 Sharks lead. San Jose was then forced to score late in the
game to salvage a point.
Using Winchester in the shootout with Patrick
Marleau, Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle all available made McLellan's decision all
the more peculiar. Even Jamie McGinn, currently the Sharks hottest hand, was
sitting on the bench ready to take a shot at Avalanche goaltender Semyon
Varlamov.
Perhaps the Sharks should be thankful for the point they
earned just for getting to overtime. Regulation wasn't exactly a picnic for San
Jose. They surrendered the game's first goal with 16.6 seconds remaining in the
opening period. Stefan Elliott carried the puck coast to coast before firing a
shot past Anttii Niemi. The goal was painful because of its proximity to the
1st intermission, but the fact that Elliott skated untouched made it
inexcusable.
Colorado outplayed San Jose for much of the first two
periods, but the Sharks managed to score a pair of goals in the 2nd period.
McGinn scored a rare power play goal at 3:16 of the period,
redirecting a Boyle shot while parked in front of Varlamov. San Jose used
almost all of the 2 minutes afforded them from a T.J. Galiardi high sticking
penalty to tie the game at 1-1.
Boyle gave the Sharks their only lead
of the game 10 minutes later by pumping a shot from the slot past the Avalanche
netminder. Boyle pinched between the circles, one-timing a Joe Pavelski
deflection for his 2nd goal of the season.
San Jose couldn't hold the
lead.
Things started to unravel after a ridiculous pair of penalties
were called by referees Tim Peel and Brad Watson. Shane O'Brien was called for
goaltender interference after colliding with Niemi. Martin Havlat then joined
him for hooking on the play. The issue was that Havlat and O'Brien were tied up
right before Niemi was bowled over, so one of the two should have been sent
off, but not both.
Daniel Winnik knotted the game at 2-2 on the
ensuing 4-on-4, after Jason Demers was caught out of position. Winnik beat
Demers to a loose puck behind the Sharks net and continued his tour of the
Sharks zone by wrapping a shot into the wide open net.
Colin White was
whistled for a questionable holding penalty midway through the period and the
Avalanche would capitalize. Matt Duchene walked in on the league's worst
penalty kill and snapped a shot past Niemi from 10 feet out.
Marleau and Logan Couture salvaged the Sharks lone
point with 22 seconds left in regulation after the Sharks had pulled Niemi for
the extra skater. Couture picked up a loose puck just past the Colorado
blueline then put a highlight reel move on O'Brien before sending a backhand
pass to Marleau in the slot. Marleau poked it past Varlamov for this 11th goal
of the season.
The overtime period was back and forth, but ended right
after a Brent Burns attempt missed just wide of the net.
Milan Hejduk
scored in the opening round of the shootout, but was matched by Pavelski in the
3rd round. Landeskog snapped a wrister just under Niemi's blocker in the 5th
round, before Winchester's last ditch effort caught the post.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
SO |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| COL |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
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| 1st period - 1, COL,
Elliott 3 (unassisted), 19:43. |
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| 2nd period - 2, SJ,
McGinn 7 (Boyle, Handzus), 3:16, (pp). 3, SJ, Boyle 2 (Pavelski, Mitchell),
13:39. |
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| 3rd period - 4, COL,
Winnik 4 (Johnson, Quincey), 6:31. 5, COL, Duchene 11 (Hejduk, O'Reilly),
11:51, (pp). 6, SJ, Marleau 11 (Couture, Thornton), 19:38. |
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| Shootout - COL: Hejduk
(goal), Duchene (miss), O'Reilly (miss), Jones (miss), Landeskog (goal). SJ:
Handzus (miss), Havlat (miss), Pavelski (goal), Clowe (miss), Winchester
(miss). |
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| 1st period - McLeod, COL
(charging), 11:46. |
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| 2nd period - Galiardi,
COL (high sticking), 1:25. |
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| 3rd period - Havlat, SJ
(hooking), 4:44; O'Brien, COL (goaltender interference), 4:44; White, SJ
(holding), 10:16. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Niemi |
33 |
30 |
| COL - Varlamov |
30 |
27 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| SJ |
11 |
7 |
9 |
3 |
30 |
| COL |
11 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
33 |
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| Referees: Peel,
Watson. Linesmen: Heyer, McElman. |
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