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WCSF Game 1: No hangover for
SJ
Sharks jump on Colorado with big 2nd period to
take series lead
The emotion was still fresh from the Sharks
dramatic Game 7 victory over Vegas 72 hours earlier, but the Sharks had to get
right back at it on Friday night as they kicked off their Western Conference
Semi Final series with the Colorado Avalanche. San Jose overcame a 2-1 deficit
with a 2nd period outburst that pushed toward an eventual 5-2 victory. Brent
Burns led San Jose with a goal and 3 assists, and Martin Jones made 26 saves to
stake the Sharks to the 1-0 series lead.
Even the crowd seemed
fatigued from the quick turnaround from series to series. The energy was
electric when the Sharks scored, but it took some work.
San Jose had
to get past their Quarter Finals hangover, which lasted a period and change.
They allowed Colorado to score the vaunted first goal with a tally that came
within the first 5 minutes of the game. The bad habit of surrendering the early
goal reared its ugly head in this one at the 3 minute mark when Gabriel Bourque
swept a shot past Jones from just outside the left post. Justin Braun tried to
wave at the puck after it kicked off Jones, but he missed, allowing Bourque to
follow up.
Jones kept the score manageable when he made a fantastic
toe save on Carl Soderberg at 5:49. Soderberg appeared to have Jones beat as he
tried jamming the puck from the left post, but the Sharks netminder got his
right skate back to pinch off the left post.
San Jose tied the game at
14:44, when Gus Nyquist gathered a rebound in front of the net as he skated
from the right corner, before lifting a shot past Phillip Grubauer from the
left side. Brent Burns side stepped Alexander Kerfoot off a faceoff win, before
firing a shot from the top of the right circle.
The Avalanche appeared
to retake the lead with 3:35 left in the period, when Mikko Ratanen scored, but
a review of the play showed that the Avalanche right winger kicked the puck
across the goal line.
The disallowed goal helped the Sharks survive a
13-9 shot differential in the period and an Avalanche team that cam out flying.
Sharks rookie centerman Dylan Gambrell made his first career playoff
start, but it was a short lived experience after he took a bad tripping penalty
2:46 into the 2nd period. Colorado converted on the ensuing power play when
Colin Wilson redirected a Rantanen feed from the right point past Jones for the
2-1 lead. Gambrell didn't see the ice the rest of the game after his penalty.
The turning point of the game came on another Sharks penalty. Brendan
Dillon was sent off with a cross checking double minor a minute after Wilson
scored. Dillon laid out J.T. Compher, drawing blood after opening up a cut the
bridge of the Avalanche winger's nose.
Another Avalanche goal would
have take the wind out of the Sharks sails, but they killed off all 4 minutes
to energize the sellout crowd.
The ice tilted in San Jose's favor a minute after the
Sharks killed off the big penalty, when Marcus Sorensen blocked an Erik Johnson
pass at the Sharks blueline. Sorensen gathered the puck and raced up the left
wing with Joe Thornton on his right. Drawing Grubauer to the left post,
Sorensen sent a pass to Thornton. The big Sharks centerman collected the
Sorensen feed, then swept a shot that beat Grubauer through the five hole.
Kevin Labanc put the Sharks in front with just under 4 minutes left in
the period when he undressed Rantanen with a nut-meg as he skated laterally
just inside the blueline. Labanc then turned right and headed toward the net
before uncorking a shot from between the circles, beating Grubauer over the
left shoulder.
It was a continuation of Labanc's big performance last
Tuesday, when he recorded four points in the game. Labanc's teammate Brent
Burns had a 4-point night in this one, which was the first time in Sharks
history that a defenseman recorded that many points in a playoff game.
The Sharks defenseman scored his 2nd goal of the playoffs with a minute left in
the 2nd period to put the Sharks up 4-2. Burns threw a puck toward the net from
the right wing boards, which would have sailed safely wide of the Colorado
goal, but the puck hit defenseman Cale Makar and redirected past Grubauer to
pad the Sharks lead. It was simply a favorable bounce that ended the evening
for Colorado.
With that 2-goal lead, the Sharks were content to kill
clock in the 3rd period. They were rewarded with long stretches that saw no
stoppages, winding the clock.
That was aided by a sliding block by
Burns at 11:41 of the frame as the Avalanche tried to attack Jones. Burns and
Erik Karlsson combined to block 11 Colorado shots.
Avalanche head
coach Jared Bednar was forced to pull Grubauer with 3 minutes left in the
contest in order to try and muster some offense. The Sharks capitalized on the
absence of a net guardian when Timo Meier buried a shot from the front of the
scorer's table to cap the scoring.
Matt Calvert and Dillon exchanged
pleasantries in the form of offsetting slashing penalties in the waning seconds
of the contest. Calvert caught Dillon in the back of the calf as the Sharks
defenseman was skating toward his own bench.
It was chippy ending to
an otherwise clean game.
Game Notes:
* Former Sharks
Douglas Murray and Devin Setoguchi continued the Sharks playoff tradition of
opening the locker room door, but the two put their own spin on things when
they shed their jerseys to reveal a Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski jersey.
Thornton is in the twilight of his NHL career, and Pavelski is on the mend
after his scary head injury that he sustained in Game 7 against Vegas.
* Joe Thornton recorded his 100th career playoff assist. He sits 24th in the
stat, behind Joe Sakic, who recorded 104 playoff assists during his career.
* In his last 4 games, Martin Jones has won all 4 games, powered by a
1.76 goals against average and a .943 save percentage.
* Brent Burns
and Marc-Edouard Vlasic both recoded a +4 plus/minus game. Joe Thornton and
Marcus Sorensen were on the ice for all three 2nd period goals for San Jose.
Alexander Kerfoot was a -4 for Colorado.
* Matt Calvert led all
skaters with 8 hits in the game. Colorado out-hit San Jose 28-26. The Sharks
seemed to play the body more in the game, especially in the neutral zone. That
kept the Avalanche from using their team speed to generate enough offense to
offset the Sharks 5 goals.
* Dylan Gambrell's playoff debut is
probably one he'll want to forget. The rookie only skated 8 shifts in the game,
took a penalty that resulted in an Avalanche goal and was a -1. He recorded 1
shot on goal and added a giveaway.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| COL |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| SJ |
1 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, COL,
Bourque 1 (Makar, Jost), 2:10. 2, SJ, Nyquist 1 (Burns, Couture), 14:44. |
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| 2nd period - 3, COL,
Wilson 3 (Rantanen, MacKinnon), 3:56, (pp). 4, SJ, Thornton 2 (Sorensen),
10:05. 5, SJ, Labanc 3 (Burns), 16:02. 6, SJ, Burns 2 (Sorensen, Thornton),
19:00. |
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| 3rd period - 7, SJ,
Meier 2 (Burns), 19:31, (en). |
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| 1st period - Bench, COL
(too many men), 3:00. |
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| 2nd period - Gambrell,
SJ (tripping), 2:46; Dillon, SJ (high sticking - double minor), 4:56. |
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| 3rd period - Calvert,
COL (slashing), 19:49; Dillon, SJ (slashing), 19:49. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| COL - Grubauer |
26 |
22 |
| COL - empty net |
1 |
0 |
| SJ - Jones |
28 |
26 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| COL |
13 |
11 |
4 |
28 |
| SJ |
9 |
13 |
4 |
27 |
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| Referees: Kozari,
Sutherland. Linesmen: Knorr, Racicot. |
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