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Last second heroics stun
Canucks Lemieux picks a thriller to kickoff
comeback 1/20/09 - By Mike Lee
Claude Lemieux kicked off his tenure in San Jose on Tuesday night, and
the Sharks treated him to whale of a welcome. Trailing the visiting Vancouver
Canucks late, the Sharks scored with 39.1 seconds remaining in regulation to
send the game to overtime. Captain Patrick Marleau then sent the sellout HP
Pavilion crowd into a frenzy with the game winning goal 3 minutes into the
extra session.
Hopefully the 43-year-old Lemieux isn't taking heart
medication, because the 2-1 stunner might not be the best way to ease the
Sharks new elder statesman back into the game.
"The 2 games we have
played in the last 72 hours have been complete opposites," said Sharks head
coach Todd McLellan. "Tonight was dumping it out and 5 guys in the neutral
zone. We were lucky to pull the goalie and win in overtime. I like to see our
go to people play like go to people the last few minutes and get the
win."
Marleau snapped a cross-ice feed past Canucks goaltender Roberto
Luongo, while the Sharks skated with a 4-on-3 advantage after Daniel Sedin was
sent off for hooking a minute earlier.
The Canucks repeatedly ran pick
plays in the overtime period in order to open up skating room for the puck
handler. Referees Marc Joannette and Francois StLaurent let the interference
infractions go, but they were forced to send Sedin off.
Joe Thornton
setup Marleau's goal with the feed, moments after Marleau narrowly missed on a
ply in front of the net. Thornton created that chance as well by centering a
pass to Marleau as he cut past two Canuck defenders.
Timely passing
was the theme of the hour for Thornton, who also setup the game tying score
late in regulation. Trailing 1-0 for most of the game, McLellan was forced to
pull goaltender Evgeni Nabokov in the final minute of the 3rd period.
With the Sharks crashing the Vancouver net, Thornton found a seam from behind
the Canuck net and feathered a pass through the slot to Devin Setoguchi near
the left circle. Setoguchi ripped the one-timer past Luongo, slipping the puck
just between the Canucks goaltender and the left post.
"In general I
thought we played a pretty solid road game," said Canucks head coach Alain
Vigneault. " We didn't give them much, but obviously, I think we were unlucky
at the end there. Obviously a great player made a great play. It was more lucky
that pass went through and there wasn't much to shoot at, but they were able to
tie it up. Their winning goal - obviously I think the play should have been
blown; you can't be poking your stick into the goal tender when the goalie's
got the puck under him."
Luongo looked poised to earn the shutout as
his defensive corps did a great job of clogging up the skating lanes all night.
San Jose was held to 8 shots on goal in the opening period and 7 in the middle
frame.
Taylor Pyatt gave the Canucks their 1-0 lead 12:38 into the
game on a nifty feed from Henrik Sedin. Vancouver only put two shots on goal in
the period, but one found the back of the net.
Sedin would spark an on-ice incident after the game
had been decided. After the Sharks bench rushed to congratulate Marleau for
scoring the game winner, players began to head back to the tunnel. Sedin was
skating toward the visiting team door and appeared to intentionally run into
Ryane Clowe.
Clowe did a 180 to exchange pleasantries with Sedin, but
before he could, Shane O'Brien tried to intercede with his fists. Half the
Canucks had already exited the ice, so they were outnumbered, but cooler heads
prevailed. Referees and linesmen joined Vigneault in keeping the peace.
Vigneault put the loss in perspective follownig the game.
"I
think the way we played tonight is the way we came to play and I said last game
a lot of times when you go through some of these challenges toward the end,
when you're looking for a win, there's a lot of games that you play well in.
This was one, Columbus was one. We didn't [win], so we've got a couple of days
here to refuel and it's a really important second half. We're right there with
everybody else. At the beginning of the year, that's what people said, that
we're going to be right there, and that's where we are."
Game Notes:
Lemieux skated 12 shifts, logging 7:08 of ice time, all in
even-strength situations. The right winger was credited with 3 shots on goal
and 3 hits.
"(Claude) Lemieux played well finished his checks and
played seven in a half minutes," said McLellan. "I think he has got to feel
good for himself after his first game back."
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What did you
think of this game? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
VAN |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
SJ |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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1st period - 1, VAN,
Pyatt 6 (H. Sedin, D. Sedin), 12:38. |
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3rd period - 2, SJ,
Setoguchi 21 (Thornton, Marleau), 19:20. |
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Overtime - 3, SJ,
Marleau 25 (Thornton, Pavelski), 3:08, (pp). |
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1st period - Sundin, VAN
(cross checking), 4:26. |
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2nd period - D. Sedin,
VAN (holding), 5:21; Semenov, SJ (hooking), 13:59; Ohlund, VAN (hooking),
18:00. |
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Overtime - D. Sedin, VAN
(hooking), 2:17; O'Brien, VAN (roughing), 3:08. |
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Shots |
Saves |
VAN - Luongo |
29 |
27 |
SJ - Nabokov |
14 |
13 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
VAN |
2 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
14 |
SJ |
8 |
7 |
10 |
4 |
29 |
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Referees:
Joannette, StLaurent. Linesmen: Wheler, Cormier. |
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