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Defensive focus tames
Bruins
Good Sharks show up
The Sharks gave their fans another reason to be
frustrated on Thursday night. Having laid eggs against Anaheim and Los Angeles
on back to back nights earlier in the week, San Jose played like world beaters
on Thursday to knock off the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins 2-1
at HP Pavilion. Applying a vice-like clamp on the Bruins for a majority of the
game, the Sharks showed everyone what they're capable of. Problem is, they just
can't seem to do it on a consistent basis. You never know what team is going to
show up, and Thursday was no different.
After giving up a combined 10
goals in their last 6 periods of hockey, there was little reason to believe
that they were going to hold the suddenly surging Bruins to a single goal.
Somehow the Sharks defense suppressed the Bruins. Boston only mustered 17 shots
on goal and 8 of those came in a desperate 3rd period. The shot total was the
fewest allowed by San Jose this season.
Sharks head coach Todd
McLellan has made it clear to his players that their road to recovery starts
with an emphasis on protecting their own end. That's what San Jose did, and
good things happened.
"You can't open it up against that team," said
McLellan. "Everybody knows them for their physicality and their board play. A
lot of teams underestimate their speed, also. I didn't want to get into a track
meet with them. I thought late in the second with about four minutes to go we
got in that track meet and got a taste of it and didn't like it. We managed the
puck pretty well in the third. It was a tight game; not a lot of chances."
Joe Pavelski made things easier by getting the Sharks on the board
first. Pavelski was the benefactor of a rebound off a Patrick Marleau shot from
the doorstep 3:57 into the game. San Jose got aggressive in the Boston zone,
cycling he puck for a good minute before Joe Thornton fed Marleau from behind
the Bruins goal. Marleau haked at the puck from outside the left post, but
Boston netminder Tim Thomas made the save. Lurking on the opposite post,
Pavelski gobbled up the rebound and fired a shot past a sprawling Thomas.
"We are going to need all four lines to contribute to make the
playoffs right now," said Thornton. "We'll take any win. It was a good win
tonight, but we still have eight games to go. And we still have a lot of work
to do."
Shots on net came at a premium for both teams the rest of the
period. San Jose generated 8 shots in the period, while the Bruins were held to
a paltry 5 shots. Pavelski generated one of those shots, backhanding a puck off
Thomas' right shoulder. The puck deflected dangerously toward the goal, pinging
off the crossbar.
Bruins centerman Gregory Campbell was sent off for
the Sharks only power play in the game midway through the period, but Thomas
bailed him out with a pair of quality saves.
San Jose almost found
itself staring down the barrel of an unpleasant situation early in the 2n
period when Brent Burns coughed up the puck in the offensive zone, then allowed
the Bruins to breakout on a 2-on-1 break. Brad Marchand couldn't get around
defenseman Douglas Murray who also took away the pass, so he decided to shoot.
Antti Niemi made the save preserving the Sa Jose's slim lead.
The shot
was only one of four the Bruins were able to take on Niemi in the period.
At the other end Thomas was earning his paycheck, stopping all 12
Shark shots he faced in the period.
Justin Braun was called for a
slash after he broke Brian Rolston's stick as the two jostled for a puck. San
Jose limited the Bruins to a Zdeno Chara shot that Niemi turned aside easily on
the power play.
The closest Boston came to scoring in the period came
off a Milan Lucic shot that Niemi got a piee of before it grazed he crossbar.
Daniel Winnik gave the Sharks some breathing room with his first goal
as a Shark, which also happened to be his first tally in 44 games. The Sharks
forward carried the puck up the left wing after Andrew Desjardins forced a
Bruins turnover in the neutral zone. With his shooting angle quickly
disappearing, Winnik snapped a wrist shot from the left corner, squeezing the
puck between Thomas and the left post.
The goal turned out to be the
game winner after Boston cut the Sharks lead in half later in the period.
That goal turned out to be Niemi's lone mistake of the
evening. Boston charged the zone and sent a puck wide of the goal, but Brian
Rolston gathered the rebound in front of the goal and fired another shot on
net. Niemi got his skates tangled up and fell flat on his back. Stuck on his
back like a wounded Armadillo, the Sharks netminder just laid flat out in his
back as Chara skated around a Sharks defenseman, recognized Niemi's precarious
position, then threw the puck at the Sharks netminder from behind the goal
line. The puck hit Niemi in the chest, banking perfectly into the goal with
4:15 left in regulation.
A smattering of groans filled the arena,
voicing what everyone in the building was thinking. Were the Sharks going to
cough up the lead? The Sharks spent the rest of the game answering that
question by keep the puck away from Niemi.
The Bruins Thomas with a
minute to play, but couldn't generate a quality scoring chance.
"We
were playing a lot on the outside and as the game went on we were better to get
through and create some traffic and some shots," Chara said. "If we wanted to
score more goals we needed to put more pucks on the net."
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think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| BOS |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| SJ |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Pavelski 27 (Marleau, Thornton), 3:57. |
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| 3rd period - 2, SJ,
Winnik 6 (Desjardins), 2:17. 3, BOS, Chara 11 (Kelly, Rolston), 15:45. |
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| 1st period - Campbell,
BOS (tripping), 11:10. |
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| 2nd period - Braun, SJ
(slashing), 11:27. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| BOS - Thomas |
27 |
25 |
| SJ - Niemi |
17 |
16 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| BOS |
5 |
4 |
8 |
17 |
| SJ |
8 |
12 |
7 |
27 |
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| Referees: LaRue,
Kimmerly. Linesmen: Sharrers, Rody. |
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