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Economical Sharks win 4th
straight
Melker Karlsson bags overtime
winner
The Sharks may never want to come home again. After
struggling for much of the evening, San Jose leaned on a Swede and a rookie Fin
to pull out a 1-0 victory in overtime, as the host Philadelphia Flyers fell to
the streaking Sharks. Melker Karlsson was the man of the hour as his overtime
winner gave the Sharks their 4th win on their current 6-game road trip.
The victory was the Sharks 5th in a row on the road, but it gets team
leaning in the right direction. San Jose struggled to get their offense kicked
into gear after generating a paltry 9 shots on goal over the final 40 minutes
of regulation.
San Jose looked as if they might extend the goal-fest
they started in Boston on Tuesday night, when an errant puck turned into a
crazy scoring chance just 10 seconds into the game. As the Sharks cycled a puck
around the Flyers end boards, Philadelphia goaltender Chris Mason skated behind
his net to try and play the puck. That puck hit something along the boards and
caromed back out to the front of the goal. Joe Pavelski was there to push a
shot on net, but defenseman Luke Schenn threw himself in front of the shot to
deny the Sharks captain.
The Sharks were offensively challenged for
all of the last shot of the game from that point forward. They generated a
paltry 5 shots in the 2nd period, and only 4 in the 3rd.
Goaltender
Martin Jones had a consistent workload throughout the evening, stopping 34
shots for his 3rd shutout of the season. 5 of those shots came on Flyers power
play chances.
The Sharks held the advantage in power play time,
inducing 4 chances with the man advantage. The most notable was a Wayne
Simmonds tripping call with 19 seconds left in regulation. The power play
carried over to the overtime session, which is now being played under the
league's new 3-on-3 format. Because no team can skate with less than 3 players,
the Sharks were allowed to add a skater while Simmonds served the final 1:41 in
the extra frame.
The Sharks didn't convert on any of their power play
chances, but the one in overtime was the toughest pill to swallow. Joe Thornton
seemed convinced that he could open up a hole in the Flyers defense by standing
near the right dot and stick handle with the puck. All that ended up doing was
kill clock. The Flyers would eventually kill off that crucial penalty, but they
couldn't stop Karlsson.
Karlsson's game winning goal started when the Flyers
tried pressing in the Sharks zone with the three players they had on the ice.
Paul Martin dug the puck out of the right corner then hit Joonas Donskoi with a
lead pass as the rookie winger skated up the left wing. Defenseman Michael Dal
Zotto sprinted back to split Donskoi and Karlsson, but he was forced to drop to
the ice to try and stop a pass through the slot.
Donskoi lifted a
saucer pass over Dal Zotto's stick, hitting Karlsson perfectly in stride.
Karlsson made a pretty play even prettier when he received the pass on the fly
and lifted a shot over Mason's left shoulder to send the 18,229 in attendance
packing.
The Sharks will be put to the test this weekend when they
travel to Pittsburgh on Saturday to take on the Penguins, who are 7-3-0 in
their last 10 games. The Sharks then turnaround to play the Columbus Blue
Jackets on Sunday to cap their 6-game trip. The back to back games are a
grueling way to end a lengthy trip that has helped right the Sharks struggles.
The schedule makers weren't exactly in a giving mood when they set up
the current trip.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| PHI |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Overtime - 1, SJ,
Karlsson 3 (Donskoi, Martin), 3:45. |
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| 2nd period - Gudas, PHI
(slashing), 7:41; Ward, SJ (tripping), 10:05. |
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| 3rd period - Simmonds,
PHI (hooking), 3:08; Schultz, PHI (closing hand on puck), 10:40; Thornton, SJ
(tripping), 12:06; Simmonds, PHI (tripping), 19:41. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
34 |
34 |
| PHI - Mason |
21 |
20 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| SJ |
10 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
21 |
| PHI |
6 |
15 |
9 |
4 |
34 |
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| Referees: Pochmara,
Martell. Linesmen: Cherrey, Murray. |
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