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Sharks continue to hemorrhage
goals
Penguins put another 5-spot on defensively
challenged SJ
After their 5-day respite for the All Star Break,
the Sharks hit the ice fully rested in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. The
re-energized Sharks looked like a rested team, moving well at PPG Paints Arena,
but a series of miscues cost them in what ended as a lopsided 5-2 loss to the
Penguins. San Jose held a 2-1 lead late in the 2nd period, before allowing 4
unanswered goals to the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins.
The
loss was the third consecutive game in which San Jose has surrendered 5 or more
goals to their opposition. What has traditionally been a staple, defense has
deserted the Sharks the past three games. The last two have been played without
Joe Thornton, who has always been one of the Sharks best defensive players on
offense.
Thornton's absence was more than evident in the fateful 3rd
period, that saw the Sharks go into an offensive shell, that was fueled by a
pair of botched plays.
Pittsburgh drew first blood in the game, when
Bryan Rust scored 11:09 into the game after he raced past Justin Braun on the
right wing and slipped a puck between Martin Jones's skates for his 5th goal of
the season. Braun's lackadaisical effort left Jones hung out to dry as Rust
powered to the front of the net unobstructed.
The Sharks used a series
of Penguin penalties to take a 2-1 lead with a pair of power play goals in the
2nd period. Brent Burns fired a shot from the point that beat Matt Murray at
the 10:00 minute mark. Timo Meier sat parked at the top of the crease, creating
the obstruction that that interfered with Murray's line of sight on the puck.
The Penguins backed themselves into a corner late in the period when
Phil Kessel took a high sticking penalty at 16:30, followed by a Kris Letang
cross checking infraction 1:37 later. While not scoring on the 5-on-3, the
Sharks converted right after Kessel stepped back on the ice.
Joe
Pavelski tried to push a shot past Murray from the left side, but was forced to
feed Tomas Hertl in the slot. A Hertl shot attempt was deflected over to the
right side, where Couture gathered it and swept a shot that found a hole under
Murray for his 21st goal of the season.
San Jose was rolling at this
point. They finished the period having out-shot the Penguins 23-10 in the
period, fueled by the four Pittsburgh minor penalties, but the final play of
the period proved catastrophic.
With the clock ticking down, Burns
started to skate the puck away from his own end boards, but elected to dump it
back behind the net with a blind backhand. There was no Shark to receive it,
but Phil Kessel swooped in and flipped a pass to the front of the net where an
undefended Evgeni Malkin was there to tap it past Jones and tie the game. That
goal came with 5 seconds left in the period and essentially negated all their
hard work in the period.
Burns gaff looked was topped by Jones 6 minutes into
the 3rd period. The Sharks goaltender gathered a puck along the end boards and
tried to move it to Brendan Dillon in the right corner, but he let is roll off
his stick right to Patric Hornqvist, who immediately sent it to the front of
the wide open net for Malkin to punch home for the 3-2 lead.
Now
trailing, the Sharks were forced to open things up defensively which in turn
opened up opportunities for the Penguins. Rust tapped home his 2nd goal of the
evening at 13:58 after Tom Kuhnhackl sent a blind back hand pass between his
own skates to the front of the net. Rust skated down the slot to tap it home as
Barclay Goodrow floated behind him on defense.
San Jose pulled Jones
with 3 minutes play in a fruitless attempt to mount a comeback. The two-goal
lead allowed to Penguins to spend the next 180 seconds firing pucks down the
ice.
Malkin bagged an empty-netter for the hat trick with 1:!3 to play
to cap the scoring.
Game Notes:
* Marc-Edouard Vlasic
left the game 3 minutes into the contest after it appeared that he tweaked his
knee while defending in front of his own net. The Sharks defenseman returned to
start the 2nd period and finished out the game.
* Joonas Donskoi, Timo
Meier, Joakim Ryan and Melker Karlsson were the only Shark skaters that did not
finish with a negative plus-minus rating. Brendan Dillon had a team low -3.
* On a night when the Sharks put 42 shots on Matt Murray, only Marcus
Sorensen, Joel Ward and Dylan Demelo failed to generate a shot on goal.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| PIT |
1 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, PIT,
Rust 5 (Sheahan, Cole), 11:09. |
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| 2nd period - 2, SJ,
Burns 8 (Donskoi, Boedker), 10:00, (pp). 3, SJ, Couture 21 (Hertl, Pavelski),
18:35, (pp). 4, PIT, Malkin 24 (Kessel), 19:55. |
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| 3rd period - 5, PIT,
Malkin 25 (Hornqvist), 6:01. 6, PIT, Rust 6 (Kuhnhackl, Letang), 13:58. 7, PIT,
Malkin 26 (Rust, Crosby), 18:47, (en). |
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| 1st period - Karlsson,
SJ (interference), 9:22; Crosby, PIT (roughing), 9:22; Burns, SJ
(interference), 15:49. |
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| 2nd period - Cole, PIT
(tripping), 0:54; Schultz, PIT (interference), 9:02; Goodrow, SJ (roughing),
14:12; Kessel, PIT (high sticking), 16:30; Letang, PIT (cross checking),
18:07. |
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| 3rd period - Burns, SJ
(tripping), 7:48; Letang, PIT (tripping), 8:52. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
30 |
26 |
| SJ - empty net |
1 |
0 |
| PIT - Murray |
42 |
40 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
13 |
23 |
6 |
42 |
| PIT |
11 |
10 |
10 |
31 |
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| PPG Paints Arena - 18,469 |
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| Referees: Charron,
Sutherland. Linesmen: Nowak, Smith. |
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