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Sharks bow to
Kings Flat performance spells doom 12/14/06 - by Mike Lee
The Sharks may have been
guilty of looking ahead to their Thursday night matchup against the visiting
Los Angeles Kings. After controlling things rather easily on Tuesday in
Southern California, the Sharks returned home to finish a home-and-home series
with the Kings before taking on the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night. Throw in
the fact the Kings were sending out a goaltender who had never faced NHL
opposition in his career and it's easy to see how San Jose brushed the thought
of competing aside.
The approach would backfire five minutes into the
contest, when Anze Kopitar bagged his 7th goal of the season on a rather
unspectacular play.
Rather than buckling down, the Sharks thought they
could rely on their special teams play to pick up the pace as it did on Tuesday
night. That to would backfire less than two minutes later. After Brian Willsie
was sent off for boarding, Kopitar teamed up with Alexander Frolov for a
back-breaking short handed goal to quickly dispel the notion that the Kings
were going to roll over.
Frolov took a pass from Brent Sopel and drove
down the slot, before dropping the puck to Kopitar who trailed on the play. The
rookie forward skated around a fallen Vesa Toskala and easily deposited the
puck for the 2-0 Kings lead.
With the early lead, rookie goaltender
Barry Brust had a chance to settle in and settle his nerves.
"After
that first shot, I calmed down and got some confidence," said Brust. "I'm
pretty elated. I waited 23 years for this, and it was worth it. ... My
confidence built as I made my first saves, and that confidence seemed to get
transferred to my teammates."
Things went from bad to worse for San
Jose in the 2nd period. After exchanging an equal number of shots in the
period, Mike Cammalleri swatted home a loose puck in front of the Sharks net
after Sopel bounced a shot of the end boards. Cammalleri was cutting across the
slot as the puck landed right in front of him.
Mark Bell appeared to
cut into the Kings lead with a goal moments later, but it was disallowed
because the puck was redirected with a high stick.
Derek Armstrong capped the Kings scoring 1:28 into the
3rd period with his 6th of the year.
San Jose would bag a pair of
goals late in the period, but it was too little, too late. Christian Ehrhoff
broke a 15-game goalless drought by roofing home a 20-foot shot past
"If you don't come to play and you're not hungry, it's hard," Toskala said.
"It's hard, especially against L.A., which we should be able to beat every time
we play against them."
Mike Grier would add a goal with under four
minutes to play to cut Los Angeles' lead in half. Bell setup the score by
throwing the puck on net from the left wing boards. Grier, who was nestled at
the top of the crease, swept the rebound of Brust into the net for his 7th goal
of the season.
San Jose tried pulling out all the stops to get back
into the game, including a time-out call with just 14 seconds remaining. Brust
stood tall, stopping 16 shots in the period to earn his first NHL win.
"We just weren't ready to play from the get-go," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said.
"It just wasn't there for almost two periods. Maybe the last 15 minutes of the
game, we played with a sense of urgency. ... We'll get beat 10-0 if we bring
this performance against Anaheim."
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think of this game? Post your comments on the
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
LA |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
SJ |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
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1st period - 1, LA,
Kopitar 7 (Brown, Dallman), 5:05. 2, LA, Kopitar 8 (Frolov, Sopel), 6:58,
(sh). |
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2nd period -
3, LA, Cammalleri 13 (Sopel, Armstrong), 2:08. |
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3rd period - 4, LA,
Armstrong 6 (Frolov, Ivanans), 1:28. 5, SJ, Ehrhoff 6 (Thornton, Carle), 9:59,
(pp). 6, SJ, Grier 7 (Bell, Rissmiller), 16:37. |
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1st period - Willsie, LA
(boarding), 5:33; Kostopolous, LA (tripping), 19:41. |
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2nd period - Cammalleri,
LA (slashing), 5:50; Blake, LA (tripping), 12:07; Ehrhoff, SJ (tripping),
15:00. |
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3rd period - Ivanans, LA
(holding), 9:38. |
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Shots |
Saves |
LA - Brust |
36 |
34 |
SJ - Toskala |
31 |
27 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
LA |
12 |
11 |
8 |
31 |
SJ |
9 |
9 |
18 |
36 |
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Referees: Mike Leggo, Brad
Meier. Linesmen: Brad Lazarowich, Brian Mach. |
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