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No answers in Nashville
Losing streak extends to four games
10/22/05 - by Mike Lee
After sleep walking through
their last two games, the Sharks finally woke up and played with the intensity
required to dig them out of the malais that has plagued them on the road this
season. The problem is, even with 60 minutes of high energy hockey, it wasn't
enough to get them over the hump and into the win column. Playing the hottest
team in the NHL right now didn't help matter either.
San Jose subsequently tripped up for the fourth consecutive game on their
current six-game sojourn away from home, with a 2-1 loss to the Nashville
Predators in Tennessee on Saturday night. The Sharks buckled once again in the
3rd period, allowing the Predators to steal a victory and extend the Sharks
road woes.
"We got great goaltending from Tomas Vokoun," Predators head coach Barry Trotz
said. "He was absolutely spectacular in the last 1½ minutes. Tomas was
the reason why we won the hockey game."
Vokoun stood on his head in the final five minutes of regulation to deny the
Sharks, who have only three points in seven games away from HP Pavilion this
season. The Predators goaltender was almost knocked out of the game after
taking a shot off his neck, but the Predators goaltender stayed in the game and
finished with 37 saves on the evening.
San Jose elevated its game after being embarrassed in Columbus the night before
to the league's worst team. The Sharks peppered Vokoun in the 2nd period with
18 shots on goal, and threw everything they had at him in the final two minutes
of the game.
"The effort was incredible," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "I can't fault it.
I feel like we played more than well enough to win, but we didn't. We took a
step in the right direction."
San Jose may have been better prepared to win the game had they not succumbed
to dumb penalties in the middle period. With Kyle McLaren already about to be
sent off for slashing, Keith Primeau committed a holding penalty during the
delayed penalty.
With two full minutes of 5-on-3 hockey to work with, the Predators took
advantage and converted on a blast by Yannic Perreault, which split Sharks
goaltender Vesa Toskala's pads.
"San Jose did a lot of good things that
took us out of our game," Trotz said. "There were a lot of chances and a lot of
shots. You have to do certain things against San Jose and if you refuse them
you give up turnovers."
Jonathan Cheechoo had staked the Sharks to a 1-0 lead four minutes earlier on a
5-3 goal himself. Cheechoo poked in a rebound after Tom Preissing's shot
bounced off Vokoun.
Scott Hartnell scored the game winner on a rebound off Toskala midway through
the 3rd period. David Legwand rifled the puck at Toskala from the point, the
puck bounced out to Hartnell, who was breaking in from the left wing. The
Sharks failed to get a bovy on Hartnell and the game was decided.
Notes
The Sharks held a players only meeting after the loss on Friday night. San
Jose held a similar meeting eight games into the 2003-04 season after starting
the season poorly. The meeting raises the question, why not hold the meeting
in training camp???
The Sharks recalled goaltender Nolan Schaeffer, who served as Toskala's backup.
Evgeni Nabokov did not suit up after sustaining an upper body injury on Friday
night.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| NAS |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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| 2nd period - 1, San
Jose, Cheechoo 3 (Preissing, Hannan), 3:17, (pp). 2, Nashville,
Perreault 3 (Hamhuis, Hall), 7:35, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 3,
Nashville, Hartnell 3 (Legwand, Suter), 11:34. |
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| 1st period - Walker, NAS (hooking), 1:13;
Legwand, NAS (holding the stick), 3:20; Sturm,
SJ (hooking), 10:09; Kariya,
NAS (hooking), 10:22; Hannan, SJ (tripping), 15:02; McLaren, SJ
(interference), 17:33; Michalek, SJ (slashing), 18:33.
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| 2nd period - Allison, NAS (interference),
1:30; Hamhuis, NAS (tripping), 2:30; Nichol, NAS (slashing), 4:03; McLaren, SJ
(slashing), 6:15; Primeau, SJ (holding), 6:15.
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| 3rd period - Hannan, SJ (hooking),
7:22. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Toskala |
30 |
28 |
| NAS - Vokoun |
38 |
37 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
9 |
18 |
11 |
38 |
| NAS |
11 |
8 |
11 |
30 |
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| Referees: Mike Hasenfratz, Shane Heyer.
Linesmen:Pierre Racicot, Tony Sericolo. |
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