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Post All Star stretch kicks off
with a W
Brent Burns bags overtime winner to repel
Coyotes
With all the All Star hullabaloo in the rear view
mirror, the Sharks returned to the ice as the unofficial second half of the NHL
regular season kicked off on Saturday night. San Jose had to knock off some of
the rust that accumulated during their 10 days off, but one of their All Stars
used some nifty moves to bail out the Sharks. That All Star being Brent Burns,
who scored an unbelievable goal in overtime to knock off the Arizona Coyotes
3-2 at SAP Center.
Burns tucked his defensive responsibilities into
his back pocket and turned into Bobby Orr 3:14 into the extra period, scoring a
highlight reel goal. The defenseman took a drop pass from Tomas Hertl as both
skated out of the left corner, then he circled toward the net.
Burns
was facing Coyotes winger Richard Panik, who stood between him and the Arizona
goal. The defenseman deeked right, then cut left, working around Panik. Then
Burns lifted the puck past goaltender Darcy Kuemper for his 10th goal of the
season, sending the Sharks faithful home happy.
Those moves may not be
in Burns repertoire if he's laying on a beach for the last 10 days like many of
his teammates. The burly defenesman's soft touch in front of the net may have
been an effect of him skating last weekend during the All Star festivities.
The rest of the San Jose roster certainly showed the cobwebs that had
accumulated during the break. Both teams tried to kick start their respective
games for the first 30 minutes of regulation.
Connor Garland finally
cracked the blank score sheet midway through the 2nd period, when Christian
Fischer forced a Tim Heed turnover just outside the right post as the Sharks
defenseman tried to skate the puck out of the San Jose end. Garland grabbed the
puck and floated across the slot from right to left then fired a shot under a
diving Martin Jones.
Kevin Labanc tied it up less than 3 minutes later
when he punched home a rebound off a Brent Burns blast. The Sharks winger was
lurking near the right post when Burns put a hard shot on net form the high
slot. Labanc sent the puck past Coyotes goaltender Darcy Kuemper for his 6th
goal of the season.
San Jose grabbed the lead 44 seconds later. Timo
Meier found himself on a breakaway chance, but Kuemper stopped a shot from in
tight. The puck trickled out to the front of the crease where Joe Pavelski
swooped in and lifted a backhand shot over Kuemper's right leg pad for his 28th
goal of the season.
Things got odd on the next shift when left wing Lawson
Crouse appeared to score a goal, but it was waved off by referee Kyle Rehman.
An officials review overturned Rehman's call citing that the net had not been
dislodged before the puck crossed the goal line. The issue was that everyone in
the arena saw Crouse run into Jones, which should have been an obvious
goaltender interference infraction.
Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer was
forced to challenge the goal on the basis of goaltender interference. That was
quickly verified, negating the goal, but the fact that San Jose was forced to
challenge in the first place simply exposed the archaic processes imposed by
the NHL.
Rehman and Brad Watson seemed to extend a consolation to
Arizona by calling a pair of penalties on San Jose to close out the period.
San Jose made life difficult for themselves early in the 3rd period
when Brent Burns took a high sticking penalty at 1:46. The Sharks looked as if
they had generated a short-handed breakaway chance, but Evander Kane was ruled
to have stepped on to the ice before another skater cleared it, forcing a too
many men penalty.
That gave the Coyotes a 5-on-3 power play chance for
40 seconds. San Jose killed those 40 seconds, then Burns was on break after
exiting the box. Kuemper stopped Burns, and was forced to defend yet another
short-handed chance moments later.
The net net was no additional
scoring, but it created a charge in the SAP crowd.
Josh Archibald
would get a puck past Jones at 7:10 of the period after Radim Simek vacated the
front of the Sharks net to purse Mario Kampe along the end boards. Joe Thornton
was a bit flat-footed as Archibald slipped in between the circles and snapped a
Kempe feed home for his 5th goal of the season.
Game
Notes:
* With his 13th career overtime goal, Brent Burns tied Scott
Niedermayer for most OT goals in NHL history by a defenseman
* Saturday
night games in San Jose typically translate into a full house, but that wasn;t
the case against Arizona. The Sharks announced the crowd at 17,227, which was
short of the capacity 17,562 that the Tank holds. .
* Evander Kane had
himself a game, flying all over the ice most of the evening. He tied Brent
Burns with 8 shots on goal to lead all skaters. Clayton Keller led Arizona with
7 shots on goal.
* Defenseman Erik Karlsson missed his 4th straight
game, but the Sharks received some relief with the return of fellow blueliner
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who had missed the last 10 games for San Jose.
*
Sharks defenseman Brendan Dillon played in his 500th career NHL game.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| ARI |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
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| 2nd period - 1, ARI,
Garland 10 (unassisted), 9:56. 2, SJ, Labanc 6 (Burns, Sorensen), 12:09. 3, SJ,
Pavelski 28 (Meier, Couture), 12:53. |
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| 3rd period - 4, ARI,
Archibald 5 (Kempe, Crouse), 7:10. |
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| Overtime - 5, SJ, Burns
10 (Hertl), 3:14. |
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| 1st period - Dillon, SJ
(slashing), 3:53; Lyubushkin, ARI (holding), 7:30; Ekman-Larsson, ARI
(interference), 19:55. |
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| 2nd period - Heed, SJ
(holding), 15:16; Braun, SJ (holding), 18:47. |
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| 3rd period - Burns, SJ
(high sticking), 1:46; Bench, SJ (too many men), 3:07. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| ARI - Kuemper |
35 |
32 |
| SJ - Jones |
33 |
31 |
| SJ - empty net |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| ARI |
8 |
14 |
11 |
0 |
33 |
| SJ |
10 |
14 |
9 |
2 |
35 |
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| Referees: Rehman,
Watson. Linesmen: Gibbons, Smith. |
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