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Pavelski heats up in
LA Rookie bags a pair in win 12/12/06 - by Mike Lee
The Sharks may want to
consider forcing every player on the roster not already named Joe to change
their name to the hottest three letter word in the South Bay. Joe Pavelski
followed up Joe Thornton's recent assist hot streak with a two goal performance
in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, to pace the Sharks to a 3-1 win over the host
Kings at the Staples Center.
Pavelski scored his 6th and 7th goals of
the season, playing in only his 10th game of the year and is quickly turning
into an offensive for the surging Sharks. The 2003 7th round draft pick netted
the game winner with a breakaway tally midway through the 2nd period then
converted a power play chance to pad a 3-0 lead early in the 3rd.
"I've capitalized on a lot of opportunities I've gotten," said Pavelski. "I'm
just so new and I want to keep things going."
The Kings had to be
scratching their heads after throwing 20 shots on Evgeni Nabokov in the middle
period, only to see Pavelski score on a breakaway after leaving the penalty
box, where he served a bench minor for too many men on the ice. Nabokov stood
tall in that middle frame, denying three Los Angeles power play chances and
stopping everything the Kings could muster.
"We're just not good
enough," Kings center Derek Armstrong said. "The first two periods we were
getting the pucks to the net and I think we tried to play too wide open in the
third and it cost us."
Nabokov would finish the game with 36 saves on
the evening, and finally received a little offensive support. Steve Bernier
made the most of a fluke play after Matt Carle fired the puck into the Kings
zone as the Sharks entered the Los Angeles zone. The puck kicked out of the
corner back into the slot, where Bernier scooped it up and snapped a shot past
Dan Cloutier for the 1-0 Sharks lead.
Nabokov made sure the Kings had
limited opportunities to capitalize on many rebounds by smothering every long
range shot that was thrown his way.
"They shoot from everywhere and we
know that," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "They're not always dangerous, but
they make the goalie work. We did a good job clearing rebounds."
Pavelski would add his second goal after the Kings
sent two men to the penalty box 1:14 apart. Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo
setup the goal with a series of passes down low, but Cloutier got crossed up on
the play, opening up the entire right side of the net for Pavelski to shoot at.
San Jose out-shot the Kings 15-5 in the final period, but it was Los
Angeles who turned up the heat. Nabokov's shutout bid ended at 10:26 of the
period when Lubomir Visnovsky threw the puck on net, bouncing it off Mike
Grier's shin guard. The puck changed directions enough to catch the inside of
the right post.
A Mark Bell hooking penalty two minutes later setup an
uneasy situation for San Jose, allowing the Kings to breath some like into
their game. Craig Conroy narrowly missed on a bouncing puck in front of an open
net, but the Kings still applied pressure throughout the period in an attempt
to pull even with San Jose.
A Brian Willsie hooking penalty with less
than two minutes to play cost the Kings any chance to leverage an extra
attacker by pulling Cloutier.
"They were putting the pressure on,"
Nabokov said about the Kings' late flurry. "They were making our defense work.
We knew they were going to come out harder."
Notes:
The home
and home continues on Thursday in San Jose, when the same two teams square off
for the fifth time this season. San Jose leads the series 3-1 in the four games
played to date.
Defenseman Kyle McLaren was scratched so that he could
attend to his lower body injury suffered last week. McLaren played Monday night
against the Phoenix Coyotes after missing the previous two games because of the
injury.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
LA |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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1st period - 1, SJ,
Bernier 10 (Carle, Ehrhoff), 13:23. |
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2nd period -
2, SJ, Pavelski 6 (Rissmiller), 8:59. |
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3rd period - 3, SJ,
Pavelski 7 (Thornton, Cheechoo), 4:43, (pp). 4, LA, Visnovsky (Kopitar,
Murray), 10:26. |
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1st period - Gorges, SJ
(tripping), 0:38; Miller, LA (hooking), 5:51; Davison, SJ (cross checking),
9:40; Cowan, LA (high sticking), 9:40; Murray, LA (holding), 12:56. |
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2nd period - Davison, SJ
(holding), 1:04; Team, SJ (too many men), 6:51; Avery, LA (interference),
10:20; Pavelski, SJ (hooking), 12:23. |
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3rd period - Harrold, LA
(hooking), 2:47; Avery, LA (tripping), 4:01; Bell, SJ (hooking), 12:18;
Thornton, LA (tripping), 14:20; Willsie, LA (hooking), 18:40. |
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Shots |
Saves |
SJ - Nabokov |
37 |
36 |
LA - Cloutier |
31 |
28 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
9 |
7 |
15 |
31 |
LA |
12 |
20 |
5 |
37 |
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Referees: Gord Dwyer, Bill
McCreary. Linesmen: Shane Heyer, Jay Sharrers. |
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