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Road success continues for San
Jose
5-game road trip starts off with a W
The Sharks kicked off a 5-game road trip with a
stop in Ohio to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. San Jose
took advantage of a young lineup that was out-classed in the opening 30
minutes, to take a 3-2 victory at Nationwide Arena. San Jose received scoring
from three players and clamped down on the Blue Jackets for their second
consecutive win of the season.
San Jose was the best road team in
hockey last season, and they used Saturday night to pick up where they left off
last season. The Blue Jackets continued their trend of getting off to sluggish
starts, even under the direction of task master John Tortarella. Columbus
struggled out of the gate last season and had to use a late push to bring there
record out of the cellar.
Saturday night's affair was a microcosm of
San Jose fortune and Columbus' misfortune. The team with the loaded roster
turned aside the upstarts who put up a fight, but played the familiar losers
role.
The Sharks enjoyed a lengthy 4-minute power play after
defenseman Brent Burns was clipped under the eye with a high stick by Oliver
Bjorkstrand. As might be expected early in the season, the Sharks power play
had some issues generating any activity in the direction of the Blue jackets
net. San Jose mustered three shots during the man advantage.
Any
momentum the Blue Jackets generated from the big penalty kill was quickly
smothered by new Sharks forward Mikkel Boedker. The Danish forward snapped a
shot from the left dot past Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky at 9:22 of
the period. Boedker chased down a puck as he skated from the right side of the
rink then ripped a shot that hit Bobrovsky in the left arm, but squeezed past
the goaltender.
Joel Ward made it a 2-0 Sharks lead 6 minutes later.
The Sharks forward beat a Blue Jackets defenseman to the left corner, chipping
a puck to Chris Tierney who wound it around the end boards to the right wing.
Brent Burns tracked the puck up the boards and saw Ward cutting to the net, so
he whipped pass to the left post where the forward redirected it home for his
1st goal of the season.
The Blue Jackets went 18 minutes between shots
over the last 15 minutes of the opening period and into the 2nd frame.
Zach Werenski took a tripping penalty 7 minutes to the 2nd period, which almost
turned catostrophic for San Jose when William Karlsson found himself with the
puck on the right side while staring at an empty net. The Blue Jacket's forward
whipped a shot on net, but hit the right post to keep the Sharks 2-goal lead in
tact.
Columbus got a spark early in the 3rd period when
Burns was sent off for interfering with Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno in
front of the Sharks net. Werenski made the most of things, scoring his first
career NHL goal with a shot from the right side that beat Martin Jones.
That momentum was interrupted by a Brandon Dubinsky tripping penalty
which put the Sharks on the power play for the 4th time in the game. The Sharks
didn't score on the power play, which gave the Blue Jackets that sliver of life
that kept them in the game.
Jones helped preserve the sharks lead with
7:50 to play in regulation when a Columbus rush finished with a deflected puck
on net. Cam Atkinson followed that up with a chance in tight after he worked
the puck past Joe Thornton in the slot. The Sharks centerman was able pick
Atkinson's pocket but the chance raised the blood pressure on the San Jose
bench.
Boedker had a chance to pad the Sharks lead with 4:10 left
after the Sharks caught the Blue Jackets on a 2-on-1 break. The Sharks
centerman had a nice look on net but Bobrovsky snuffed out a shot from the
slot.
Things turned dicey in last two minutes of the game. David
Savard was whistled for tripping Marc-Edouard Vlasic, to put the San Jose on
the power play for the 5th time. San Jose looked content with simply killing
clock, but Columbus turned the kill into a couple of scoring chances. Patrick
Marleau flipped a puck from the right wing boards, that ended up being the game
winner with 34 seconds left in regulation.
The goal should have simply
been stat padding, but it became notable because the Blue Jackets scored 11
seconds later when Josh Anderson converted off the faceoff for his first goal
of the season. Scott Hartnall chased down a puck deep in the Sharks zone then
flipped a pass to the front of the net where Anderson was cutting across the
slot. Anderson drew the puck over to his backhand over the left post then
lifted the puck past Jones to cut the lead back to a single goal.
There was no magic for Columbus with only 23 seconds remaining as San Jose was
able to work the final ticks by forcing it into the Blue Jackets zone.
Game Notes:
* Brent Burns led all skaters with 8 shots on goal.
The Sharks held the Blue Jackets to 2 shots in the 1st period. Joe Pavelski had
5 shots of his own.
* Columbus ruled the faceoff circle, winning 35 of
60 draws for a 58% win percentage. Joel Ward was 3 of 9 and Tommy Wingels was 3
of 8 from the circle.
* The special teams has yet to get on track in
the team's first two games. The penalty kill allowed another goal and falls to
1 for 3 on the season.
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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 |
T |
| SJ |
2 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| CBJ |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Boedker 1 (Couture, Dillon), 9:22. 2, SJ, Ward 1 (Burns, Tierney), 14:54. |
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| 3rd period - 3, CBJ,
Werenski 1 (Wennberg, Atkinson), 3:43, (pp). 4, SJ, Marleau 1 (Burns, Vlasic),
19:26, (pp). 5, CBJ, Anderson 1 (Hartnell), 19:37. |
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| 1st period -
Bjorkstrand, CBJ (high sticking double minor), 4:19. |
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| 2nd period - Donskoi, SJ
(goaltender interference), 0:57; Werenski, CBJ (tripping), 7:16. |
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| 3rd period - Burns, SJ
(interference), 3:34; Dubinsky, CBJ (tripping), 6:03; Savard, CBJ (tripping),
17:52. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
28 |
26 |
| CBJ - Bobrovsky |
37 |
36 |
| CBJ - empty net |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
11 |
18 |
9 |
38 |
| CBJ |
2 |
12 |
14 |
28 |
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| Nationwide Arena - 16,546 |
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| Referees: Furlatt,
StLaurent. Linesmen: Devorski, MacPherson. |
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