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Not much to
appreciate No Presidents Trophy at regular season
home finale
Given the opportunity to lock up home ice
throughout the playoffs on Thursday night against arguably one of the weakest
teams in the NHL, the Sharks laid an egg on home ice, losing big to the Phoenix
Coyotes 4-1. With the Boston Bruins winning in overtime earlier in the day, the
Sharks were forced to win in order to win their first President's Trophy for
best record in the league. That didn't happen as rookie goaltender Al Montoya
stopped 40 shots to deny San Jose on fan appreciation night.
Fans
didn't seem too appreciative of the Sharks second consecutive sub-par
performance on home ice, especially with the stakes at hand. With Detroit
losing in a shootout an hour before the Sharks were scheduled to drop the puck,
the Western Conference was secured, but home ice throughout the playoffs is
what the Sharks covet.
Of course, if they play like they did on
Thursday night, home ice advantage won't mean much come playoff time.
"In my opinion we didn't start playing until it was 3-0," said Sharks head
coach Todd McLellan. "At this time of the year there's no chance of winning if
you make that decision before the game. To wait and see and put your toes in
the water to see how cold it is and if you want to jump in or not, it's
disappointing this time of the year. Will has to take precedent over
skill
not sure that was the case today."
San Jose started the
game flat, probing the Coyotes, rather than taking the game to their opponent.
Phoenix would push the fight into the Sharks end of the ice and capitalize on a
mediocre defensive effort by San Jose.
After winning a faceoff in
their own zone, the Sharks failed to pursue the puck, allowing Scottie Upshall
to jump on the puck near the bottom of the right circle and whip a shot past
Evgeni Nabakov at 9:30 of the opening period. Joe Pavelski was caught flat
footed as Upshall pursued the puck from the inside of the circle, and Rob Blake
failed to get a stick or body in front of the shot.
The Sharks then
shot themsleves in the foot. First Douglas Murray was assessed a double-minor
for high sticking Shane Doan. Dan Boyle was then sent off for holding 1:16 into
Murray's 4-minute penalty, giving the league's worst ranked power play a 2-man
advantage for a full 2 minutes. The Sharks came with 32 seconds of killing off
Boyle's minor, but Ed Jovanovski sent a shot from the blueline past a screened
Nabokov with 18.7 seconds left in the period.
"That was a big goal for
us - one-nothing," sad Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky. "A one-goal lead in
this arena is not very good, and you get that second one and it gives you a
little bit of a cushion."
The remainder of Murray's penalty carried
over into the 2nd period, but the Sharks handled the one-man deficit with a bit
more effectiveness. They would be guilty of playing chase the puck later in the
period and it would cost them. Zbynek Michalek took a feed from Peter Mueller
as he sliced through the slot and snapped home his 6th goal of the season to
give the Coyotes the 3-0 lead.
The Sharks turned up the pressure and
the hitting, which was accentuated by a Travis Moen check on Todd Fedoruk
midway through the period in front of the Coyotes bench. Fedoruk took exception
to the hit and immediately started throwing haymakers. With Moen and Fedoruk
engaged, Jovanovski stuck his nose into the fracas, but was only assessed a
roughing minor, rather than a third-man in penalty which would have resulted in
his ejection from the game.
"It was a funny game because in the first
five minute they had five shots, and halfway through the second period, shots
were 11-10," added Gretzky. "So we really buckled down for 15-20 minutes there
and played solid hockey. Then we got into some trouble: their team is so good
they just kept coming at us."
Devin Setoguchi would go after Martin
Hanzal 3 minutes later in a spirited scrap that favored the Sharks young
winger. It was Setoguchi's first NHL fight.
San Jose would outshoot Phoenix 15-5 in the middle
period, but nothing would challenge Montoya, who had clear lines of sight all
night long. Phoenix did a fantastic job of clearing lanes and blocking shots
all night long.
Moen would finally get the Sharks on the board with
7:38 to play, by jamming home a loose puck just in front of the left post. The
Sharks would put even more rubber on net, and were finally able to capitalize
after Montoya was surrounded by bodies and the Coyotes netminder failed to
cover the puck in front of his own net.
San Jose had two power plays
after Moen's goal, but their frantic handling of the puck seemed to do more
damage than good. A Joakim Lidstrom delay of game penalty with just over 4
minutes to play ended any doubts of the outcome, when the Sharks failed to
score, then gave up another goal right after the penalty expired.
Right after Lidstrom was freed from the box, the Coyote chipped the puck past
Blake at the Phoenix blueline and Upshall streaked up the left side, carrying
the puck into the Sharks zone. The Coyotes forward sent a pass to Mueller in
the slot and the centerman flipped a shot past Nabokov to put the final stamp
on the victory.
"We played them well, we matched up well against them
today," said Gretzky. "Obviously they're a team that's going to be a little bit
mentally stronger when they're up against the Detroit Redwings or Calgary
Flames. We have a great deal of respect for them and we were ready to play
against them."
When asked if his team was aware of the outcome of the
Red Wings game, McLellan gave his input on how it affected his team.
"Yeah they knew. They watched the game and it was on TV, but I don't think that
affected the outcome at all. I don't think we prepared or where we needed to be
to play the first 25 minutes of the game. After that, when we did start to play
with some authority on the ice, we had a lot of chances. They blocked a ton of
shots, I think over 30 tonight, and that's a pretty committed team for group
not in the playoffs."
Game Notes:
Sharks captain
Patrick Marleau and Ryane Clowe returned to the Sharks lineup, striking two
more players off the infirmary list. Jonathan Cheechoo, Claude Lemieux and Bad
Lukowich were given the night off as the Sharks prepare for the start of the
playoffs next week. Jeremy Roenick addressed the crowd after the game, thanking
Sharks GM Doug Wilson for "restoring his dream" when he signed him before the
2007-08 season. Roenick shed a few tears while describing his appreciation at
being given one more shot to play hockey.
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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 |
T |
PHO |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
SJ |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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1st period - 1, PHO,
Upshall 15 (Lombardi), 9:30. 2, PHO, Jovanovski 9 (Doan, Lombardi), 19:41,
(pp). |
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2nd period - 3, PHO,
Michalek 6 (Mueller), 4:00. |
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3rd period - 4, SJ, Moen
7 (Grier, Goc), 12:22. 5, PHO, Mueller 13 (Upshall, Lindstrom), 17:57. |
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1st period - Murray, SJ
(high sticking - double minor), 16:57; Boyle, SJ (holding), 18:13. |
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2nd period - Doan, PHO
(hooking), 4:38; Fedoruk, PHO (fighting major), 10:37; Jovanovski, PHO
(roughing), 10:37; Moen, SJ (fighting major), 10:37; Hanzal, PHO (fighting
major), 14:15; Setoguchi, SJ (fighting major), 14:15. |
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3rd period -
Michalek, PHO (cross checking), 4:24; Michalek, PHO (roughing), 4:24; Murray,
SJ (roughing), 4:24; Kalinin, PHO (tripping), 9:05; Sauer, PHO (high sticking),
13:23; Lindstrom, PHO (delay of game - puck over glass), 15:46. |
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Shots |
Saves |
PHO - Montoya |
41 |
40 |
SJ - Nabokov |
17 |
13 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
PHO |
6 |
5 |
6 |
17 |
SJ |
6 |
15 |
20 |
41 |
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Referees: Rooney,
Kimmerly. Linesmen: Murray, Cvik. |
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