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Couture's hat trick powers
Sharks
Canucks drop 9th straight game
A day after clinching a playoff birth, the Sharks
had to overcome the fatigue of back-to-back games and the emotional let down
after such a big win. Luckily they got to do it against the lottery bound
Vancouver Canucks who haven't won a game in 9 straight tries. San Jose shook
off a sluggish start to beat the Canucks 4-1, powered by Logan Couture's first
career hat trick.
Couture's season has exactly been of the fairy tale
variety. After suffering a broken leg at the beginning of the season, Couture
faced surgery to address a clotting issue in his thigh. The goals haven't been
coming in bushels for the Sharks forward, so a three goal performance was a
nice way to help close out the regular season.
Couture and his
teammates struggled in the opening 20 minutes, dragging their feet against a
Canucks team that was motivated to snap their horrific losing streak and that
had the home ice advantage. Getting San Jose on the back end of back-to-back
games should have made this a cake walk for the Canucks, but give the Sharks
credit.
They battled the injury depleted Canucks team, getting through
the 1st period, then landing a body blow in the opening moments of the 2nd
period. Joe Pavelski put back a rebound off Jacob Markstrom after Brent Burns
bounced a shot off the Canucks goaltender with a shot from the right point.
San Jose was poised to add to their lead after Jake Virtanen was
issued a major penalty for interference for leveling Roman Polak with a nasty
blindside hit in retaliation for the Sharks defenseman knocking his stick out
of his hands earlier in the sequence.
The Sharks misfired on the
5-minute penalty, then committed a major gaff when they allowed Chris Higgins
to carry the puck up the left wing and snap a shot over James Reimer's left
shoulder for the short-handed tally.
Couture started his big run with 11 seconds left in
the period, sweeping home a pin-balling puck from the top of the crease. Nick
Spaling helped with the goal, kicking it to his linemate as the puck seemed to
bounce off of everyone's stick.
Vancouver got into penalty trouble in
the 3rd period when Matt Bartkowski and Markus Grandlund took separate
infractions 17 seconds apart. Couture made them pay with a shot from the slot
after Pavelski made a feed from behind the Canucks net. Vancouver was guilty of
overloading one side of the ice when the Sharks moved the puck to the right
corner. It allowed Couture to camp out in front of the net with no defender
within 15 feet of him.
The Canucks pulled Markstrom with 1:40 to play
in regulation, which allowed the Sharks to try and setup Couture's hat trick.
The centerman had a chance from distance, but his shot missed the right post by
a hair.
Burns setup Couture with 16 seconds left in regulation,
feeding the puck for an easy 25 foot deposit.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
| VAN |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
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| 2nd period - 1, SJ,
Pavelski 37 (Burns, Thornton), 0:20. 2, VAN, Higgins 3 (Hutton), 6:21, (sh). 3,
SJ, Couture 11 (Spaling), 19:49. |
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| 3rd period - 4, SJ,
Couture 12 (Pavelski, Marleau), 14:01, (pp). 5, SJ, Couture 13 (Burns, Zubrus),
19:44, (en). |
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| 1st period - Polak, SJ
(interference), 6:45; Haley, SJ (fighting major), 15:12; Pedan, VAN (fighting
major), 15:12. |
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| 2nd period - Virtanen,
VAN (interference - major), 2:01; Virtanen, VAN (game misconduct), 2:01. |
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| 3rd period - Braun, SJ
(hooking), 0:46; Bartkowski, VAN (high sticking), 13:00; Granlund, VAN
(goaltender interference), 13:17; D. Sedin, VAN (boarding), 15:31. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Reimer |
22 |
21 |
| VAN - Markstrom |
31 |
28 |
| VAN - empty net |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
7 |
12 |
13 |
32 |
| VAN |
13 |
5 |
4 |
22 |
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| Referees: Luxmore,
Sutherland. Linesmen: Galloway, Knorr. |
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