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Sharks fall flat in
Nashville
SJ drops Game 3 in 4-1 snoozer
You can't expect to win them all, but you do expect
the team to show up. The Sharks have found lots of success during this post
season, but Tuesday night wasn't indicative of that. The Sharks grabbed an
early 1st period lead, then threw things into cruise control for the final 40
minutes. That was a recipe for disaster as the host Nashville Predators scored
the next 4 goals to roll the Sharks 4-1 at Bridgestone Arena.
This was
one to file away as an example of what not to do the rest of the playoffs. It
was a text book example of resting on your laurels after grabbing an early
lead, and how that typically leads to bad things.
After frustrating
the Predators through Games 1 & 2, the Sharks let complacency take over
after a decent opening period that seemed to add to the pressure for Nashville.
That pressure was magnified by a Patrick Marleau goal with 6:37 remaining in
the opening period.
The Sharks broke out of their own zone when Tomas
Hertl redirected a puck to Marleau who was making his way up the center of the
ice. Marleau moved the puck up to his stick by kicking it forward with his
trailing skate, but it moved past his stick. fortunately for San Jose it also
slipped past defensemen Shea Weber and Roman Josi. Marleau flew past both of
those players and drew the puck to his left as goaltender Pekka Rinne came out
of his net to try and poke it away.
All Marleau had to do was drop it
into the wide open net for the Sharks early lead.
That's when things
turned south for San Jose. The 2nd period started out as poorly as could be
when rookie forward Joonas Donskoi clipped James Neal, cutting the Predators
forward with a high stick.
It took Nashville three of those four
minutes to finally solve the Sharks penalty kill, but they got the job done,
tying the game at 1-1. Neal fired a one-time chance from the bottom of the
right circle after Mattias Ekholm set him up with a pass from the slot. Neal
fired the puck high on Jones, which seemed to enlighten the Predators.
They spent the rest of the game shooting high on Jones, and every shot seemed
to get past the Sharks netminder.
Weber gave the Predators the lead
with 4:16 remaining in the middle frame by unleashing a Howitzer shot from the
high slot. The puck sailed over Jones left shoulder, continuing with the trend
of shooting high on Jones. Defenseman Roman Polak could have stepped into the
shooting lane to try and block Weber's shot, but he seemed uninterested in
absorbing Weber's rocket shot.
Colin Wilson pushed the Nashville lead
to 3-1 at 6:55 of the 3rd period after Jones misjudged a Ryan Ellis shot. Ellis
sent a one timer from the right side of the slot that Jones expected to push
wide of the net and carom off the end boards to the left side of the rink. The
puck clipped the side of the net instead, hitting the end boards and bouncing
back out to the right side where Wilson collected it and fired it into the
unguarded right side of the goal.
A Brendan Dillon slashing infraction setup the 5th
Predators power play of the night. Filip Forsberg cashed in with another shot
that went top shelf. The Predators leading goal scorer from the regular season
snapped a shot from the top of the right circle as he skated in toward the net
while the Sharks tried to defend the Nashville man advantage.
The
Sharks special teams play was the antithesis of Nashville's 2-of-5 night. The
Sharks had 4 chances on the power play, and they couldn't generate a single
shot across any of those chances. Joe Thornton had a particularly tough night
on the man advantage. His nonchalant play with the puck resulted in a handful
of turnovers that stymied the Sharks play in the Predators zone.
Game Notes:
* The faceoff blues reared their ugly head again in
Game 3. San Jose only won 43% of the draws in the game. Joel Ward was 1-of-7
from the faceoff circle and Chris Tierney converted on 4-of-12.
* In a
sign that defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic still isn't 100% following the injury
he sustained late in the regular season, the blueliner only logged 18:51 of ice
time. The defenseman has traditionally booked the most minutes for the Sharks,
but his absence suggests he's likely still nursing the injury that sidelined
him late in the season.
* Mr Carrie Underwood led all skaters with 6
shots on goal.
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What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
2OT |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
0 |
0 |
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1 |
| NSH |
0 |
2 |
2 |
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4 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Marleau 2 (Hertl, Vlasic), 13:13. |
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| 2nd period - 2, NSH,
Neal 3 (Ekholm, Johansen), 5:11, (pp). 3, NSH, Weber 3 (unassisted), 14:44.
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| 3rd period - 4, NSH,
Wilson 3 (Ellis, Fisher), 6:55. 5, NSH, Forsberg 2 (Josi, Weber), 15:49, (pp).
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| 1st period - Karlsson,
SJ (hooking), 1:11; Burns, SJ (roughing), 15:16; Bitetto, NSH (cross checking),
15:16; Jackman, NASH (roughing), 15:16; Arvidsson, NSH (slashing), 19:05. |
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| 2nd period - Donskoi, SJ
(high sticking - double minor), 2:19; Nieto, SJ (hooking), 12:57; Smith, NSH
(high sticking), 13:57; Jackman, NSH (hooking), 18:21. |
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| 3rd period - Thornton,
SJ (slashing), 11:08; Josi, NSH (slashing), 11:08; Dillon, SJ (slashing),
14:08. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
13 |
11 |
| SJ - empty net |
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| NSH - Rinne |
18 |
17 |
| NSH - empty net |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| SJ |
9 |
9 |
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18 |
| NSH |
7 |
6 |
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13 |
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| Referees:
O'Halloran, Pollock. Linesmen: Amell, Racicot. |
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