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Slow start doesn't stop
SJ
Sharks win for the 11th time in
November
The month of November came to an end in terms of
scheduled games for San Jose on Saturday night, but they may not want the month
end just yet. San Jose won for the 11th time in the month, tying a franchise
record for wins in the month, by knocking off the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 in
Glendale. San Jose had to shake off a sluggish start, but would score four
unanswered goals to overcome a 2-0 hole. Martin Jones settled down and stopped
21 shots en route to his 12th win of the season.
The big month
appeared as if it would fall a game short of the record 11th win after it
looked like the October Sharks came to play.
The Sharks wasted no time
stinking up the ice, allowing Arizona to score just 1:33 into the contest when
Christian Dvorak found Nick Schmaltz loitering undefended on the left side.
Dvorak sent a pass to his linemate for a slam dunk goal, as the Sharks
completely failed to defend the centerman.
Derek Stepan made it a 2-0
game just 39 seconds later, when Arizona converted on an identical play. This
time Clayton Keller found Stepan unguarded as the Sharks defense all tried to
gum up the slot. Martin Jones was a dead man, as he was positioned too far out
of the net to stop Stepan from scoring his 5th goal of the season with his own
slam duck gimmee from the left side.
The simplicity of Arizona's
scoring gave everyone in the building the impression that this was going to be
a long night for San Jose. Whatever it was, a light switch on the Sharks bench
flipped on.
Logan Couture stopped the bleeding when he sniped his 7th
goal of the season with a wrist shot form the right dot at 11:01. Coyotes
defenseman Jakob Chychrun trid to step in front of Couture's shot, and may have
screened his goaltender Antti Raanta by doing so.
Dylan Gambrell
knotted the game at 2-2 just 2:55 into the 2nd period when he raced around the
back of the net before pivoting to his left and lifting a shot that squeaked
under Raanta's right arm for his 2nd goal of the season. It was only Gambrell's
2nd goal of the season, but he looked like Patrick Marleau on the play, using
his speed to get to a spot where be could get some air under his shot.
Raanta was particularly good stopping pucks that were on the ice, so San Jose
had to elevate their shots to get them past the goaltender.
Timo Meier
gave the Sharks their first lead of the game at 8:52 of the period when he
redirected a Marc-Edouard Vlasic blast from the left point. Meier was parked
outside the crease over the left post, and was able to get his stick blade on
the shot, shifting it to the right just enough to slip between Raanta's pads.
San Jose made life a little harder on themselves in the first half of
the 3rd period when they took three straight minor penalties, including a pair
of back to back tripping infractions on Erik Karlsson. The Sharks buckled down
and did not allow a shot on goal over the trailing two penalties to help retain
the lead.
Karlsson was not particularly happy with the second
infraction that was pinned on him. Clayton Keller didn't help matters by
dropping like a ton of bricks after Karlsson's stick got tied up in the
centerman's skates.
The Coyotes narrowly missed tying the game with 3:21
left when a Phil Kessel shot rang off the right post.
San Jose sealed
the game at 19:31 when Logan Couture gathered a looping clearing pass by Tomas
Hertl and rifled home an empty net goal from his own side of the midline.
Game Notes:
* The Sharks extended their NHL record for
consecutive wins when allowing 2 or fewer goals to the opposition, grabbing
their 45th consecutive victory.
* Tomas Hertl played in his second
game since returning from a lower body injury that sidelined him for 4 games,
but it was apparent that Hertl is still nursing the injury. He was missing a
jump in his step, but he was able to contribute with in the faceoff circle,
where he won 11 of 16 draws (69%). He also assisted on Logan Couture's empty
net goal.
* Per Darin Stevens, the last time the Sharks overcame a
2-goal deficit to win in the regular season was Feb.ruary 24, 2019., when they
came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3.
*
While their 11 wins tied the franchise record for wins in the month, they still
2 wins shy of most wins in a month which they set in March of 2008.
*
While Martin Jones earned his 12th win of the season, 10 of those came in
November, which tied Evgeni Nabokov and Antti Niemi for the franchise record
for wins in a month. Nabokov did it twice (December 2007 and March 2008), and
Niemi accomplished the feat in February of 2011.
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What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
| ARI |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, ARI,
Schmaltz 5 (Dvorak, Garland), 1:33. 2, ARI, Stepan 5 (Keller, Ekman-Larsson),
2:12. 3, SJ, Couture 7 (E. Karlsson, Kane), 11:01. |
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| 2nd period - 4, SJ,
Gambrell 2 (M. Karlsson), 2:55. 5, SJ, Meier 9 (Vlasic, Hertl), 8:52. |
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| 3rd period - 6, SJ,
Couture 8 (Hertl), 19:31, (en). |
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| 1st period - Cychrun,
ARI (high sticking), 16:34. |
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| 3rd period - E.
Karlsson, SJ (tripping), 0:36; E. Karlsson, SJ (tripping), 6:55; Simek, SJ
(delay of game - puck over glass), 9:11. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
23 |
21 |
| ARI - Raanta |
29 |
26 |
| ARI - empy net |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
7 |
16 |
7 |
30 |
| ARI |
9 |
7 |
8 |
23 |
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| Gila River Arena - 15,485 |
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| Referees: Hanson,
Luxmore. Linesmen: Gawryletz, Gibbons. |
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