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Home cooking still
stinks
Kings grab Pacific Division lead with 5-2
win
11/2/07 - by Mike Lee
Statistics
don't always tell the whole story. Case in point, Friday night's 47 shot
performance by the Sharks against the visiting Los Angeles Kings at HP
Pavilion. 47 shots on goal typically represents offensive dominance over your
opposition, but on this night the Kings were the ones who dominated the
scoreboard, pasting the Sharks 5-2. Three 2nd period goals erased an early
Sharks lead, and goaltender Jean-Sebastian Aubin turned aside 45 shots to earn
the victory.
While Aubin faced more shots, it was Sharks goaltender
Evgeni Nabokov who was under siege all evening. Several circus saves by Nabokov
helped preserve a 1-0 lead in the 1st period, but Nabokov couldn't fend off the
wolves after his teammates failed to clear puck after puck.
With all
the pucks flying at Aubin, the Kings were lucky to escape the opening period
only down by a single goal. Patrick Marleau converted on a battle for a loose
puck behind the Kings net late in the period. After Steve Bernier an Jeremy
Roenick both chipped at the puck, Marleau grabbed it behind the left post,
before tucking it into the Kings goal.
San Jose would throw 21 shots
at Aubin in the period, but the Sharks inability to tack on goals would swing
the momentum in LA's favor.
"We're still a little fragile that we
can't build off something we had in the 1st period," said Sharks head coach Ron
Wilson. "It seems like we got more frustrated not scoring on our
opportunities…and we lost our patience. You're trying so hard to score,
and in a game like this you need to maintain your patience.
A
combination of that momentum and a lack of attention to details by the Sharks
would spell disaster for San Jose in the middle period.
Mike
Cammalleri would strike first on a wild rush in front of the Sharks net just 2
minutes into the period. Cammallier and Alexander Frolov carried the puck in on
Nabokov in a 2-on-1 that resulted in a rejection by Nabokov, but while a trio
of Sharks defenders stood around watching the play in front of the net, the
Kings regained control of the puck, allowing Cammalleri to punch home the first
goal for Los Angeles.
Making his NHL debut after a call up from Manchester,
Kings rookie Matt Moulson made his first game a memorable one by scoring with
just over 5 minutes remaining in the period on a feed from Michal Handzus after
Kyle McLaren and Christian Ehrhoff failed to clear the puck from their own
zone. Derek Armstrong intercepted a weak clearing attempt before chipping the
puck to Handzus. Moulson was breaking toward the goal as Handzus fed the rookie
for the 25-foot one-timer.
The Kings would strike gold again with 1:40
left in the period, after another Sharks turnover in their own zone. Anze
Kopitar grabbed a loose puck behind the Sharks net, before making a nifty
backhanded pass to Dustin Brown in the slot. Brown snapped the pass past
Nabokov for the two-goal lead.
Forced to open things up in the 3rd
period, the Sharks paid the price by getting caught up ice on a turnover.
Frolov and Ladislav Nagy raced up ice on a 2-on-1, ending with Nagy tapping
home a picture-perfect pass into the Sharks net. For the 4-1 Kings lead.
Joe Thornton would score a late goal, but it was too little, too late.
Thornton chipped the puck past Aubin from in close, but he passed on any
celebration, given the Sharks deficit.
"There has to be a sense of
urgency against teams like this," said Marleau. "For whatever reason, we had it
in the 1st period, then let it slip away."
Brown would net an
empty-net score with a minute remaining to cap the evening's scoring. The loss
cost the Sharks two points in the standings, and the Pacific Division lead.
Game Notes:
The Sharks announced the signing of defenseman
Sandis Ozolinsh, who was in the lineup on Friday night. Ozolinsh was a 1st
round pick of the Sharks in 1991, and last played for the Sharks in 1995 before
being traded to Colorado in exchange for Owen Nolan.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| LA |
0 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
| SJ |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Marleau 3 (Bernier, Roenick), 15:22. |
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| 2nd period - 2, LA,
Cammalleri 11 (Preissing, Frolov), 1:43. 3, LA, Moulson 1 (Handzus), 14:36. 4,
LA, Brown 5 (Kopitar, Cammalleri), 18:40. |
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| 3rd period - 5, LA, Nagy
3 (Frolov, Visnovski), 6:10. 6, SJ, Thornton 5 (Michalek, Setoguchi), 18:47. 7,
LA, Brown 6 (Cammalleri), 19:04, (en). |
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| 1st period - Team, LA
(too many men), 13:13; Modry, LA (holding), 18:24. |
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| 2nd period - Nagy, LA
(interference), 9:42; Johnson, LA (charging), 19:20. |
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| 3rd period - Ehrhoff, SJ
(holding), 10:34; Frolov, LA (hooking), 12:12. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| LA - Aubin |
47 |
45 |
| SJ - Nabokov |
29 |
25 |
| SJ - empty net |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| LA |
10 |
15 |
5 |
30 |
| SJ |
21 |
14 |
12 |
47 |
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| Referees: Dennis
LaRue, Brad Meier. Linesmen: Mark Pare, Tony Sericolo. |
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