San Jose brushed off their 5-2 loss to the
Dallas Stars on Saturday and kicked off the new year with a 5-2 win of their
own over the host Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on Sunday. Five
different skaters scored goals for San Jose who moved to 8-10-1 on the road
this season. The win also allowed defenseman Erik Karlsson to establish a new
Sharks record. Goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen made 20 saves to earn his 4th win of
the season.
The Sharks fell victim to some bad luck 6 minutes into the
2nd period when goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen tried to play a puck behind his own
net and ended up breaking his stick in the process. The Blackhawks worked the
puck to the front of the net where Patrick Kane snapped a shot waist high to
the stickless side.
Sam Lafferty made it a 2-0 Chicago lead at 13:30
when Andreas Anthanasiou fired a pass from the left wing boards. The shot was
parallel with the end line, zipping past Kahkonen to Lafferty on the off post.
Defenseman Scott Harrington elected to try and slide to defend the Anthansiou
pass rather than simply stopping it with his stick. The Sharks defenseman was
late, allowing Lafferty to score his 4th of the season.
Jonah
Gadjovich cut the Blackhawks lead in half less than three minutes later. Tomas
Hertl fed Erik Karlsson on the right point with a pass from behind the
Blackhawks net. Karlsson fired a shot on net, but Gadjovich was there for a
second attempt that he jammed home from the doorstep.
Marc-Edouard
Vlasic helped San Jose tie the game 41 seconds after Gadjovich's goal when a
Matt Benning pass/shot hit the Sharks defenseman in the skate and past Mrazek.
The goal came in Vlasic's 1200th NHL game. It was his 1st goal of the season.
Alexander Barabanov gave the Sharks the lead with 86 seconds left in
the period. The forward gathered a Logan Couture feed on the left side and
circled around the slot on the right wing before lifting a shot over Mrazek for
his 6th of the season.
Timo Meier scored his 21st of the season 3:52 into
the 3rd period on an easy put back from outside the right post. Scott
Harrington threw a shot on net from the blueline that Hertl tipped on net.
Mrazek thought he had the puck squeezed not realizing it had trickled over to
the right side where Meier finished things.
Evgeny Svechnikov put the
game out of reach with his 4th of the season at 12:55. Nick Bonino put a shot
on net from the right dot, but a deflection bounced right to Svechnikov who was
straddling the end line on the right side. The winger immediately returned the
puck to the net, beating Mrazek to make it a 5-2 lead.
The only
blemish for the Sharks in the final frame was a pair of tripping penalties by
Hertl that went defended on the penalty kill.
Game
Notes * Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic skated in his 1200th NHL
game.
* With his assist on Jonah Gadjovich's goal, Erik Karlsson set a
new Sharks record for consecutive points in a game. Karlsson has recorded a
point in 13 consecutive games, breaking Rob Gaudreau and Jonathan Cheechoo's
team record. The streak includes assists in all 13 games which is 5th longest
in NHL history by a defenseman.
* Jonah Gadjovich led the team with 4
shots on goal. He also led the team with 3 hits.
* In addition to
Karlsson's 2 assists, Oskar Lindblom and Logan Couture both contributed 2
helpers.
* The Sharks will fly home and then continue to Anaheim for
their game on Friday.
