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Special teams dooms San
Jose
Maple Leafs score three power play goals to
sink Sharks
The Sharks entered Wednesday night's game in
Toronto with the league's 2nd ranked penalty kill, but even that was exposed by
the Maple Leafs in another 5-3 defeat. The Sharks completed their home and home
series with the Eastern Conference opponent by dropping both games by the same
score. San Jose continued to under perform on their 5-game road trip, but this
one was decided by a penalty kill that imploded by allowing three goals on the
man advantage.
This game was decided before the first intermission.
Toronto took advantage of the Sharks inability to mount much defense on special
teams. John Tavares scored a pair of goals in the period to lead the Maple
Leafs.
Kevin Labanc took the first of his two costly tripping
penalties 2:53 into the game. Tavares converted on a tap in from Auston
Matthews 45 seconds into the power play. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun
were both caught completely out of position as the two Maple Leaf forwards
worked the puck below the circles for Tavares' 16th of the season.
Tomas Hertl tied the game at the 10:40 mark after Andreas Johnsson was sent off
for interference. Hertl jammed home a Labanc feed from the doorstep for his 6th
of the season.
A Barclay Goodrow holding penalty 20 seconds later
setup the Maple Leafs 2nd goal of the night. Returning from a 14-game absence
to deal with a shoulder injury, Matthews snapped a shot past Aaron Dell just 17
seconds into the penalty. Like the period itself, the Leafs didn't waste any
time and took care of business before the Sharks knew what hit them.
The death blow came with 18 seconds left in the period when Tavares tapped home
a Mitchell Marner feed from outside the left post. The Maple Leafs broke out
after collecting a loose puck in their own zone and racing up ice. Zach Hyman
fed Marner on the right side as he crossed the Sharks blueline, who in turn
snapped a pass to Tavares across the ice after Tavares beat Brent Burns to the
side of the net.
Former Shark Patrick Marleau scored what would turn
out to be the game winner 1:53 into the 2nd period on yet another power play
when he snapped a Tyler Ennis feed into the Sharks net from the right side.
Erik Karlsson overplayed his position on the right side, letting Marleau shoot
an uncontested shot.
Joe Pavelski scored the second power play goal for San
Jose two minutes later. The Sharks captain sent a one-time chance from the
bottom of the left circle past Frederik Andersen for his 16th goal of the
season. Brent Burns setup the shot with a feed from the point.
Matthews was credited with his second goal of the game when a Johnsson shot
clipped him as he sat perched on the right post. The goal was originally
credited to Johnsson, but was later changed after video review.
Melker
Karlsson scored a meaningless goal with 2 minutes left in regulation to cap the
game's scoring. In two full games, San Jose surrendered 10 goals the Maple
Leafs. Game Notes:
* Patrick Marleau's goal against his old team
made him the 25th player in NHL history to score a goal against all 31 existing
NHL teams.
* Losing the puck possession game was instrumental in the
Sharks demise. San Jose was 28 for 70 from the faceoff circle for a 40%
conversion rate.
* In a statistical oddity, Melker Karlsson led the
Sharks in shots on goal. The forward has been essentially non-existent
offensively this season, so his 6 shots were unexpected.
* The Sharks
are now 0-2-1 on their current road trip, which now shifts to Ottawa where Erik
Karlsson will return for the first time since being traded to San Jose in
September. Saturday's game against the Senators starts at 1pm, which makes it a
10am game in California.
* San Jose finished the month of November with
a 6-6-2 record.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| TOR |
3 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, TOR,
Tavares 16 (Matthews, Marner), 3:38, (pp). 2, SJ, Hertl 6 (Labanc, Couture),
10:40, (pp). 3, TOR, Matthews 11 (Rielly, Marner), 11:19, (pp). 4, TOR, Tavares
17 (Marner, Hyman), 19:42. |
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| 2nd period - 5, TOR,
Marleau 6 (Johnsson, Gardner), 1:53, (pp). 6, SJ, Pavelski 16 (Burns, Couture),
4:18, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 7, TOR,
Matthews 12 (Johnsson, Kapanen), 10:59. 8, SJ, M. Karlsson 2 (Donskoi, Kane),
18:00. |
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| 1st period - Labanc, SJ
(tripping), 2:53; Johnsson, TOR (interference), 9:32; Goodrow, SJ (holding),
11:02; Kadri, TOR (high sticking), 14:41. |
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| 2nd period - Labanc, SJ
(tripping), 0:54; Dermott, TOR (tripping), 2:19. |
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| 3rd period - Braun, SJ
(holding), 0:33. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Dell |
29 |
24 |
| TOR - Andersen |
41 |
38 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
13 |
13 |
15 |
41 |
| TOR |
9 |
8 |
12 |
29 |
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| Scotiabank Arena - 19,362 |
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| Referees: Hanson,
Morton. Linesmen: Gawryletz, Nowak. |
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