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Sharks knock off Leafs
SJ rallies to win second straight
12/3/05 - by Derick Bellamy
For fear of having to face him themselves, The Boston Bruins
didn't want to trade Joe Thornton to another Eastern Conference team. The last
two nights almost make it seem as though they deliberately sent the star center
to a team about to play two Northeast Division (which Boston is last in)
opponents. San Jose, forgetting their recent ten-game losing streak, won their
second straight in two days Saturday while visiting Toronto, following Friday's
victory in Buffalo. Thornton, who played his first game for The Sharks on
Friday, had two assists in each contest.
Goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who almost shutout The Sabers Friday but left due to
injury halfway through the third, wasn't in action. Vesa Toskala played instead
of Nabokov or the other back up, Nolan Schaefer, who had finished off the 5-0
victory against Buffalo Friday.
San Jose opened the scoring up again at 4:10 into the first Saturday against
The Leafs. Defenseman Scott Hannan made the tally, assisted by forwards Patrick
Marleau and Grant Stevenson.
Less than two minutes later, Leafs' captain Mats Sundin, who's used to rivaling
Thornton as a high-scoring forward, scored at 05:51, and from then on in the
first it was all Toronto. Eric Lindros and Matt Stajan scored at 9:26 and
10:44, providing The Leafs with a 3-1 lead. Toronto out-shot San Jose 12-4 in
the period.
Things turned around in the second period when Stajan received a hooking minor
at 3:43. Marleau and the new Thornton continued to prove themselves as a power
play combination when Marleau took an assist from Joe and scored, to bring The
Sharks within one. Former Leaf Alyn McCauley tied it 3-3 at 08:51, and Mark
Smith put San Jose ahead by one with a short-handed turn-around goal at 11:46.
Nick Dimitrakos had an assist on both of the previous two.
The Sharks continued to put the pressure on in the third, while goaltender Ed
Belfour kept Toronto in the game. Alyn McCauley tried to wrap it up by scoring
his second of the night with under six minutes left at 14:15 in, putting San
Jose ahead 5 to 3.
Leafs forward Jason Allison picked the puck up from behind the goal and sent it
into the apparently open part of the net with under three minutes left, while
Vesa Toskala was paying attention to the other side. The Sharks goaltender was
barely able to throw his stick over and get it in front just as the puck was
entering. The Toronto forwards threw their hands up, but the referee signaled
that it wasn't a goal. However, the play went under video review and it was
later decided that it did count, putting Toronto within one. From an overhead
view the puck appeared be wedged right between the goal line and Toskala's
stick.
Toronto kept The Sharks in queue for the rest of the game. A penalty to Joe
Thornton for delay-of-game for purposely throwing the puck into the stands with
35 seconds left, along with Toronto pulling their goalie, put San Jose into a
6-on-4 situation. Toronto tried to tie it but The Sharks cleared the puck twice
in the last half-minute of the game and hung on to win it 5-4.
San Jose and Boston have each won two games since the Thornton trade. The rest
of The Sharks, who were one of the lowest scoring teams in the league, have
been playing better as well, scoring 5 in each of the last two contests, two of
each being from a Thornton assist.
"I think it took the trade to wake up (the) guys," McCauley said. "If we don't
shape up and do the things that we are capable of doing, new faces are going to
be in and the old faces are going to be somewhere else."
"We had a slow start in the first but the boys played great in the second and
third. It's another good two points for us," Thornton said.
Mats Sundin's assist on Tucker's goal was his 769th point in Toronto, putting
him one ahead of Borje Salming on The Leafs' all-time list. Ed Belfour could
have moved into full control of second place, ahead of Terry Sawchuk, on the
all-time NHL netminder wins list. But because Toronto lost, he remains tied
with Terry at 447. They both trail Patrick Roy, who is the only goalie in NHL
history with more than 500.
San Jose is now only 4 points behind Anaheim, who has played one more game, in
the Pacific Division. They hope that the chemistry between Thornton and the
rest of the team will endure and bring them out of last in the division. The
Sharks are back home on Tuesday to play the visiting Atlanta Thrashers, and
will follow that with 3 more straight Home games before going into Anaheim on
Sunday December 18th. Despite the 10-game losing streak, San Jose is still
4-3-2 at home, and Tuesday will be Joe Thornton's home debut.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
4 |
1 |
5 |
| TOR |
3 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
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| 1st period - 1, San Jose, Hannan 2 (Marleau,
Stevenson), 4:10.
2, Toronto, Tucker 12 (Sundin, Steen), 5:51.
3, Toronto, Lindros 11 (Steen, Allison), 9:26.
4, Toronto, Stajan 4 (Colaiacovo, Wellwood), 10:14. |
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| 2nd period - 5, San Jose, Marleau 11
(J.Thornton), 5:34, (pp).
6, San Jose, McCauley 5 (Marleau, Dimitrakos), 8:51.
7, San Jose, Smith 3 (Dimitrakos), 11:46, (sh). |
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| 3rd period - 8, San Jose, McCauley 6
(Preissing, J.Thornton), 14:15, (pp).
9, Toronto, Allison 6 (Klee, Ponikarovsky), 17:21.
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| 1st period - Smith, SJS (hooking), 8:39;
Thornton, SJS (high-sticking), 13:12. |
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| 2nd period - Stajan, TOR (holding), 3:43;
Davison, SJS (illegal stick), 10:53; Colaiacovo, TOR (hooking), 13:03;
McCauley, SJS (interference), 16:47. |
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| 3rd period - Lindros, TOR (hooking), 2:28;
Stevenson, SJS (tripping), 7:53; Antropov, TOR (tripping), 12:36; Steen, TOR
(holding), 13:49; Thornton, SJS (delay of game), 19:25. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Toskala |
28 |
24 |
| TOR - Belfour |
27 |
22 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
4 |
8 |
15 |
27 |
| TOR |
12 |
8 |
8 |
28 |
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| Referees: Dan Marouelli, Dean Warren. Linesmen:
David Brisebois, Scott Driscoll. |
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