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Implosion
Sharks blow 3-0
lead
4/13/08 - by Mike Lee
The
Sharks made a statement on Sunday night. They made it clear that they're still
a team that has playoff issues to deal with. After taking a commanding 3-0 lead
in the first 5 minutes of the game, San Jose allowed a feisty Calgary Flames
team to chip away at their lead and then knock off the Sharks 4-3 at the
Pengrowth Saddledome. The Flames take a 2-1 lead in the series after staging
either one of the greatest comebacks in playoffs history, or being the
beneficiaries of one of the biggest failures.
The Sharks jumped all
over the Flames before the sellout Calgary crowd was even settled into their
seats. A Stephane Yelle slashing penalty just 26 seconds into the game, put the
Sharks right on the power play and they would capitalize.
Ryane Clowe
would bag his 3rd goal of the playoffs on a 40 foot shot from the high slot.
Joe Thornton setup Clowe with a centering pass from the right wing boards right
inside the Flames blueline. Clowe took Thornton's feed and sent a shot that
caught the inside of the left post for the 1-0 lead.
Patrick Marleau
would push the Sharks lead to 2-0 less than 2 minutes later with his 1st goal
of the playoffs. Marleau worked the puck deep in the Flames zone, before
sliding a pass up to Joe Pavelski along the left wing boards. Pavelski slid a
pass to Clowe in the slot for the one-timer. Marleau got a stick on the puck as
it headed for the left post, tipping it into the Calgary net.
Douglas
Murray stunned the crowd with his 1st career playoff goal before the PA
announcer could even complete his call on Marleau's goal. Jonathan Cheechoo
took the faceoff and skated around the back of the Flames net, before sending a
pass out toward the left dot where Murray was pinching. Murray one-timed a shot
that beat Kiprusoff to the near side and a 3-0 lead.
All the Flames
whining about the officiating paid dividends 2 minutes later, when Dion Phaneuf
boarded Marleau, sending the Sharks captain head first into the boards. Marleau
was forced to change his sweater because of all the blood spattered across the
front.
Things would turn worse for Marleau after Cory Sarich leveled
him with an elbow to the head. Marleau's sustained a bloody nose, but the real
injustice came when the Flames ended up with a power play after Clowe and Matt
Carle were sent off for roughing. Calgary would capitalize on the chance.
Phaneuf would send a puck on net, but it hit Jerome Iginla and
deflected past Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov. Bad penalty, lucky deflection,
beginning of the end.
Calgary cut into the Sharks lead even further with a
power play goal at 10:14 of the 2nd period. Damond Lankow parked himself right
in front of the crease, then slammed home the puck after Iginla bounced a shot
off Nabokov. Nabokov tried to get his left leg out to defend against Langkow's
shot, but the puck slid past the Sharks netminder.
The Flames sensed
the shift in momentum and turned up the heat. A wild series of scoring chances
would keep Nabokov busy for the better part of a 5 minute span that had Nabokov
on hi heels.
The Sharks would turn a 4-on-2 chance in the Flames zone
into a 3-on-1 chance the other way. Nabokov would turn aside the scoring
chance, but it was just another example of the momentum shift. Anytime the
Sharks had a chance to open things up, the Flames would counter.
Calgary stormed back with the tying goal at 1:18 into the 3rd period, with a
one-in-a million shot. Dion Phaneuf fired a shot on net, then pin-balled off
defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic's skate, then off his stick and into the net.
Vlasic was trying to tie up a Flames forward who was trying to create traffic
in front of Nabokov.
San Jose squandered a bench minor against
Calgary, who had too many men on the ice. Thornton and Brian Campbell couldn't
move the puck past a wall of Flames defenders.
Murray whiffed on a
check in the Flames zone that allowed Alex Tanguay to race up the ice and pump
a shot on Nabokov. The Sharks goaltender peeked over his shoulder to make sure
the puck hadn't slipped past him, even though it was tucked safely between his
pads.
Owen Nolan capped the improbably comeback with his 1st goal of
the playoffs with 3:45 left in regulation. Nolan circled out of the left corner
and rifled a shot between Nabokov and the left post while the flames created
traffic in front of the Sharks net.
The Sharks got a late power play,
but the Flames smothering defense denied a single shot on goal during the San
Jose man-advantage.
Sharks head coach Ron Wilson was forced to pull
Nabokov with a minute left in the game, but the move proved fruitless as San
Jose couldn't even get the puck into the Calgary zone.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| CGY |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Clowe 3 (Thornton), 1:31, (pp). 2, SJ, Marleau 1 (Clowe, Pavelski), 3:19. 3,
SJ, Murray 1 (Cheechoo), 3:33. 4, CGY, Iginla 1 (Phaneuf, Aucoin), 13:22,
(pp). |
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| 2nd period - 5, CGY,
Langkow 1 (Iginla, Nolan), 10:14, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 6, CGY,
Phaneuf 2 (Huselius, Nolan), 1:18. 7, CGY, Nolan 1 (Tanguay, Sarich),
16:!5. |
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| 1st period - Yelle, CGY
(slashing), 0:26; Carle, SJ (roughing), 12:54; Clowe, SJ (roughing), 12:54;
Godard, CGY (roughing), 12:54. |
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| 2nd period - Tanguay,
CGY (hooking), 2:58; McLaren, SJ (elbowing), 9:53. Lombardi, CGY (cross
checking), 17:51. |
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| 3rd period - Bench, CGY
(too many men), 3:55. Phaneuf, CGY (delay of game - puck over glass),
16:39. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Nabokov |
25 |
21 |
| CGY - Kiprusoff |
5 |
2 |
| CGY - Joseph |
22 |
22 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
8 |
9 |
10 |
27 |
| CGY |
4 |
10 |
11 |
25 |
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| Referees: Furlatt,
O'Halloran. Linesmen: Cameron, Murphy. |
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