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Jones continues to struggle is
5-3 loss
Nathan Mackinnon torches Sharks in
Denver
Most professional sports teams strive for
consistency in their game. Sharks goaltender Martin Jones has achieved that in
his consistently poor play the last two months. Outside of the game against his
former team, the Los Angeles Kings earlier this week, Jones has struggled.
Those struggles have cost the Sharks, who are fighting to keep pace in the
Pacific Division standings. Jones failed to deliver on Thursday night, giving
up 5 goals to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center in Denver, as the
Sharks dropped a 5-3 decision.
Jones was particularly bad in the 1st
period, giving up three goals in a gut-punch period. To the credit of the
Sharks, they fought back to draw within a single goal at 4-3, but they would
not be able to overcome the final deficit.
Nathan Mackinnon was the an
of the hour in that 1st period. The Avalanche young forward scored a pair of
goals in that opening period, then added an assist in the 2nd period when
Colorado scored their 4th consecutive goal. Mackinnon opened the games scoring
by carrying a puck up the left wing before cutting across the slot and sending
a shot between Marc-Edouard Vlasic's skates. Jones was unobstructed, and simply
was late to respond.
Mackinnon rifled a power play shot from the top
of the left circle a minute later that Jones got a glove on, but couldn't
control. The shot works its way through Jones glove hand and trickled over the
goal line for the 2-0 Colorado lead.
Carl Soderberg capped the period
with his 10th goal of the season with a shot from the doorstep after former
Shark forward Matt Nieto set him up with a pass from behind the San Jose net.
Mikko Rantanen tipped a Mackinnon shot 1:34 into the 2nd period past
Jones, and the Sharks were down 4-0 before they knew what hit them. Rantanen
simply parked in front of the Sharks net with no interference, and was able to
let the puck slip between his skates after deflecting while fully obstructing
Jones' view.
San Jose tried to battle back. They finally got to
Avalanche goaltender Jonathan Bernier with a Timo Meier goal midway through the
period. Meier punched home a deflection after Kevin Labanc fired a shot off
Bernier's right leg pad.
Vlasic made it a 4-2 game 29 seconds into the
3rd period with a put back after Tomas Hertl missed on a chance from the right
post. Vlasic was activating on the play and swooped down the slot to pounce on
the rebound. The goal was the 6th of the season for the Sharks defenseman.
Joe Thornton cut the Avalanche lead to a single goal
with 15:07 to play as he snapped a Brent Burns feed from the right side past
Bernier. Thornton was skating down the left wing, when Burns sent a 40 foot
pass from the off wing. It was the 4th consecutive game that Thornton has
scored a goal, giving him 12 for the season.
San Jose had plenty of
time left in the period, and three Colorado penalties in the period seem to
setup the Sharks for the comeback, but their special teams play failed them.
San Jose went 0-for-7 on the man advantage, generating 24 shots while on the
power play, but Bernier answered the challenge.
The Colorado
goaltender finished the evening with 45 saves. It was the antithesis of Jones
play. While Jones was letting routine saves fall by the wayside, Bernier was
countering with buckets of stops.
As the Sharks struggled to bag the
equalizing goal, Colorado had one left in them. Nieto stuck it to his team by
tipping a Blake Comeau shot past Jones with 3:14 left to play. It was a bit of
sweet revenge for Nieto, who has more goals than all but 6 Sharks skaters this
season.
San Jose pulled Jones the final two minutes of the game in
desperation, but it was a fruitless endeavor. Game Notes:
* The
Avalanche have not trailed in a game since December 27th. It was the 7th
consecutive win for Colorado, who has scored first in each of those games.
* Sharks Head Coach Peter DeBoer deflected reporters after the game
who were inquiring on Jones sub-par play since December 1st. DeBoer responded
the Jones was, "having a great season."
* Brent Burns, Kevin Labanc and
Tomas Hertl combined for 20 of the Sharks 48 shots. None of them factored into
the game's scoring.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| COL |
3 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, COL,
Mackinnon 21 (Rantanen, Landeskog), 7:03. 2, COL, Mackinnon 22 (Girard,
Rantanen), 8:01, (pp). 3, COL, Soderberg 10 (Mackinnon, Barberio), 18:14. |
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| 2nd period - 4, COL,
Rantanen 16 (Mackinnon, Barberio), 1:34. 5, SJ, Meier 9 (Labanc, Vlasic),
9:44. |
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| 3rd period - 6, SJ,
Vlasic 6 (Labanc, Couture), 0:29. 7, SJ, Thornton 12 (Burns, Pavelski), 4:53.
8, COL, Nieto 9 (Comeau), 16:46. |
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| 1st period - Couture, SJ
(tripping), 7:29; Toninato, COL (tripping), 11:47; Zadorov, COL (slashing),
18:47. |
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| 2nd period - Kerfoot,
COL (interference), 7:44; Braun, SJ (hooking), 11:45; Johnson, COL (slashing),
17:26. |
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| 3rd period - Donskoi, SJ
(tripping), 1:46; Nemeth, COL (tripping), 7:35; Landeskog, COL (interference),
10:24; Goodrow, SJ (slashing), 13:59; Landeskog, COL (slashing), 19:01. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
22 |
17 |
| COL - Bernier |
48 |
45 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
10 |
17 |
21 |
48 |
| COL |
9 |
7 |
6 |
22 |
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| Referees:
Nicholson, Dwyer. Linesmen: Galloway, Cherrey. |
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