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Sharks shelled on Military
Appreciation Night
Blues blitz the Sharks in 4-0
win
The Sharks honored our men and women in the
military on Saturday by going AWOL and getting shelled by the St Louis Blues at
SAP Center. It was Military Appreciation night in San Jose, complete with
people rappelling from the rafters, Joe Thornton conducting bayonet
demonstrations on the ice, and the Sharks getting blitzed at home.
After dropping a tough 3-2 decision to the Calgary Flames in their last game,
the Sharks had the opportunity to pounce on a wounded team in the St Louis
Blues, against their backup goaltender, for Sharks prospect Carter Hutton.
San Jose played a 20 minute hockey game, and then let the adversity of
an opponent lead suck the life out of the building. The Blues were coming off a
5-1 shellacking at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings, and they used that as
motivation to play lockdown defensive hockey. Suppressing the Sharks offense
eventually led to offensive chances that were enough to snuff out any energy
from San Jose.
The Sharks jumped on the Blues out of the gate, but
little issues denied San Jose from taking advantage of a flurry of scoring
chances. The biggest miss was a Joe Pavelski chance from the left side that was
a slam dunk for the Sharks captain last season. On this night, that chance hit
the outside of the net, missing the goal mouth by a foot.
The wheels
fell off after a golden opportunity was turned upside down in the 2nd period.
Alex Steen and Alex Pietrangelo took penalties 11 seconds apart, setting up a
lengthy 5-on-3 power play for San Jose, but Pavelski offset the 2-man advantage
by taking an interference penalty.
The Blues killed off both of their
penalties, then Colton Parayko uncorked a shot from the right point that
clipped Marc-Edouard Vlasic's stick before slipping under Martin Jones' right
arm and into the net. Just like that a 2-man advantage turned into a 1-0
deficit.
The Sharks challenged the goal, citing an offside earlier in
the play, but officials deemed the video evidence to be inconclusive.
The Blues made it a 2-0 game 5 minutes later when shot by Parayako hit Brendan
Dillon's skate at the end line, deflecting the puck to the side of the net.
David Perron gathered the fortuitous deflection and jammed it through a sliver
of a gap between Jones' left skate and the right post. The puck literally
slipped on end and hopped over Jones' skate blade, which was pressed up against
the pipe.
Things just went downhill from there.
Thornton was irritated by Paul Stastny enough to jab at the Blues forward with
his stick and drawing a spearing major. Stastny dropped to ice clutching his
abdomen as if Thornton's stick had impaled him. Stastny's theatrics were enough
to get Thornton tossed.
Kevin Shattenkirk took a hooking penalty 15
seconds into Thornton's 5 minute major penalty, which balanced things and
allowed the Sharks to stave off the Blues for the remainder of the period.
St Louis went into lockdown mode in the 3rd period, but still managed
to build on their lead. The Blues would take 3 shots in the period, and scored
on two of them.
Pietrangelo ripped a shot 9:16 into the period from
the left point that would have sailed wide right of the net, but Jori Lehtera
clipped the puck with his stick blade, redirecting it past Jones for the 3-0
lead. The stick work was impressive given the trajectory of the puck and that
the Blues forward was facing the net and caught the puck from essentially his
backhand.
Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer elected to pull Jones with
more than 5 minutes to play for an extra attacker. Given San Jose's
discombobulated approach to the game, all the move did was help pad the Blues
offensive stats.
Steen would pot an empty net goal with Jones on the
bench to cap the game's scoring at 4-0, but the game had been decided long
before. St Louis used the rest of the game to harass players like Timo Meier,
who has some seasoning to do. With Micheal Haley engaged with Ryan Reaves,
Robert Bortuzzo elected to grab Meier by the neck during a stoppage. The Sharks
forward did nothing to respond.
Sort of like everyone else in teal.
Game Notes:
* The Sharks honored WWII veteran Isaiah
Breaux before the game by having the 93 year-old Purple Heart recipient drop
the ceremonial opening faceoff.
* Defenseman David Schlemko returned
to the Sharks lineup after missing the last five games.
* Joe
Thornton, Paul Martin, Timo Meier and Mikkel Boedker were the only skaters not
on the ice for a Blues goal.
* The game misconduct was Thornton's 4th
as a Shark.
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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 |
| STL |
0 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
| SJ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| 2nd period - 1, STL,
Parayko 2 (Stastny, Shattenkirk), 5:27, (pp). 2, STL, Perron 11 (Parayko,
Fabbri), 10:01. |
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| 3rd period - 3, STL,
Lehtera 5 (Pietrangelo, Tarasenko), 9:16. 4, STL, Steen 5 (Schwartz), 14:37
(en). |
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| 2nd period - Steen, STL
(slashing), 2:52; Pietrangelo, STL (slashing), 3:03; Pavelski, SJ
(interference), 4:18; Thornton, SJ (major spearing), 11:09; Thornton, SJ (game
misconduct)), 11:09; Shattenkirk, STL (hooking), 11:24; Bench, STL (too many
men), 12:04. |
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| 3rd period - Reaves, STL
(roughing), 19:24; Reaves, STL (roughing), 19:24; Haley, SJ (roughing), 19:24;
Haley, SJ (roughing), 19:24. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| STL - Hutton |
23 |
23 |
| SJ - Jones |
25 |
22 |
| SJ - empty net |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| STL |
10 |
13 |
3 |
26 |
| SJ |
7 |
11 |
5 |
23 |
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| Referees: Leggo,
Skilliter. Linesmen: Rody, Grandt. |
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