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Bad bounces doom
Sharks
Cruel outcome for unlucky San Jose
The 2013-14 season continues to be a season a head
scratcher for the Sharks. After knocking off division rival Anaheim Ducks on
Thursday with one of their best performances of the year, they fell victim to
some unlucky deflections that kept finding their goal on Saturday night. The
Washington Capitals were ranked 10th in the Eastern Conference entering
Saturday night's contest, but squeezed a shootout win after scoring a pair of
crazy goals that were simply puck-luck goals.
* The Capitals didn't
exactly bring their A game to SAP Center, but it was enough to knock off a
disinterested Sharks squad. The Sharks actually put four pucks past goaltenders
throughout the course of the evening, but two of them came against their own
netminder, Antti Niemi.
* Eric Fehr was the benefactor of a Justin
Braun clearing attempt that hit Matt Nieto in the shin pad and deflected into
his own net. Braun had time to skate the puck away from his own net, but
elected to sweep it clear. Problem is, Nieto was skating back up the slot
toward his own net. Nieto was a good 15 feet away from the net, but Braun put
so much juice on the puck that it traveled the distance before goaltender Antti
Niemi could do anything in response.
* The Sharks didn't do much
offensively in the opening period, but Patrick Marleau knotted the game at 1.1
with just 5.6 seconds left in the frame. Nieto tried a wrap-around attempt from
the right side, but the puck pin-balled out in front of the crease where
Marleau was parked to clean up for his 30th goal of the season.
* San
Jose enjoyed a pair of power play chances during the first half of the 2nd
period, but as has been the case in 2014, the special teams unit failed to
deliver. The Sharks put 16 shots on Braden Holtby, but could not generate
anything that got past the Capitals netminder.
* James Sheppard put
the Sharks up 2-1 5:07 into the 3rd period, after a Jason Chimera pass
deflected out of the Sharks zone, as the Sharks forward sprinted past two
Capitals defenders. Sheppard raced up ice, faked right, then slid a shot
through Holtby's pads for his 3rd goal of the season.
* If the
Capitals first goal wasn't bad enough, the hockey gods elected to torment
Sharks fans with a crazy double deflection that allowed Washington to crawl
back into the game. Centerman Chris Brown threw a puck on net that untouched
would have ended up in the right corner, but instead it hit Nieto in the slot.
The puck veered left, hit defenseman Dan Boyle in the chest, deflecting it a
second time. That second time put it on a trajectory for the goal opening.
There was nothing Niemi could do but wonder what he did to deserve such an
unfair outcome. The goal was Brown's 1st in the NHL.
* Alex Ovechkin
handed the Sharks a great opportunity to end things in regulation by clipping
Marc-Edouard Vlasic with a high stick to earn a trip to the penalty box with
2:18 left in the 3rd period. The Sharks tried to get cute with the
man-advantage, working the puck around the perimeter without actually putting
any shots on Holtby. The power play failure was almost expected.
* The
Caps owned the overtime, outshooting the Sharks 5-0 in the extra frame. Only
Niemi kept San Jose in the game, by stopping everything Washington threw at him
in the 5 minute extension.
* Holtby handled a pair of meek attempts by
Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski in the shootout. Evgeny Kuznetsov put his
opening round chance past Niemi, but Marleau matched him with the Sharks last
chance. Niklas Backstrom ended things with a backhand chance that beat Niemi to
the glove side.
Game Quotes:
Head Coach Todd McLellan:
"We would have loved to have both points, but we've got to look at how we
played, did we accomplish what we set out to do. Score wise, we didn't, but we
did a lot of things that we talked about before the game. I thought we played
pretty solid defensively against a pretty good offensive team. They like to
run-and-gun and go after you. The goals were--it's puck luck, sometimes it
doesn't go your way. It went off Nieto on the 1st one and Boyler on the 2nd, so
there's not much we can do about it."
McLellan: "I thought the power
play was sharp. We had six minutes of power play time. We created eleven real
good attempts on the goaltender, got the puck back. I look at their power play,
it's number one in the league, and they had the same six minutes, and we were
able to penalty kill real well against them."
James Sheppard: "They got a couple lucky goals. I
mean, those bounces, you don't see too often, especially two in one game.
Sometimes that happens, but I think we had some chances. We're good enough to
get more and take advantage of them. So, just kind of unlucky, but we still
have to push forward."
Matt Nieto: "As for the bounces, those are
unfortunate. Those kind of things happen so fast, you can't really react to
them. I thought we played solid. Obviously, there are things we could have done
better. But they didn't give up--they kept coming and coming, and we
unfortunately lost."
Eric Fehr: "I definitely think the size helps and
some speed but I think it's also an anticipation that really gets us the step
ahead. We're reading the play really well right now and really reading off each
other and aggressive on the other teams D (defense) which is causing a lot of
havoc and a lot of turnovers."
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
SO |
T |
| WAS |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| SJ |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, WAS,
Fehr 12 (unassisted), 11:25. 2, SJ, Marleau 30 (Couture, Nieto), 19:54. |
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| 3rd period - 3, SJ,
Sheppard 3 (unassisted), 5:07. 4, WAS, Brown 1 (Penner, Wilson), 12:30. |
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| Shootout - SJ: Couture
(miss), Pavelski (miss), Marleau (goal). WAS: Kuznetsov (goal), Fehr (miss),
Backstrom (goal). |
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| 1st period - Havlat, SJ
(tripping), 5:54. |
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| 2nd period - Wilson, WAS
(holding), 4:25; Green, WAS (holding), 8:13; Brown, SJ (interference), 11:48;
Vlasic, SJ (high sticking), 19:49. |
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| 3rd period - Ovechkin,
WAS (high sticking), 17:42. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| WAS - Holtby |
36 |
34 |
| SJ - Niemi |
25 |
23 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| WAS |
6 |
6 |
8 |
5 |
25 |
| SJ |
9 |
16 |
11 |
0 |
36 |
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| Referees:
VanMassenhoven, Devorski. Linesmen: Cormier, Lazarowich. |
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