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Miserable trip ends on a high
note Sharks snap losing streak with 4-1 win in
Minnesota
Sharks head coach Todd McLellan focused his team
on getting back to basics on Tuesday night, and that started with defense.
Wrapping up their six-game road trip in Minnesota where offense hasnt
exactly been overwhelming, San Jose applied a simple approach to defense and it
paid off with a 4-1 win. The victory snaps a season high six-game losing
streak. Evgeni Nabokov faced a paltry 19 shots, due in part to his defense,
which clamped down on the Wild.
The only goal Nabokov surrendered came
on a Minnesota power play midway through the game. San Jose s defense was
workmanlike on both ends of that goal. With the win and Phoenix s loss to
Chicago , the Sharks jump back into the Pacific Division lead and the 2nd seed
in the Western Conference. San Jose has a one point lead in the division and a
game in hand on Phoenix with nine games to play.
San Jose got off to a
good start by simply scoring the games first goal. Joe Pavelski put the
Sharks on top 5:12 in to the game on a feed from Patrick Marleau. Pavelski
whipped a shot from the bottom of the left circle past Niklas Backstrom to snap
one of the most troubling trends of the road trip. San Jose had given up the
first goal in all five games on the trip leading up to Pavelskis tally.
An interference penalty to Manny Malhotra with 1:55 left in the period
gave the Wild an opportunity to tie the game before the 1st intermission. Joe
Thornton just missed making it a 2-0 game when a puck deflected to him at
center ice, creating a short-handed chance. The centerman skated in on
Backstrom, but his shot was knocked aside by the Wild netminder.
Dan
Boyle rang a shot off the left post after Wild defenseman Nick Schultz was sent
off for hooking at 4:06 of the 2nd period. San Jose would squander the chance
with few attempts at taking the puck to the net.
Joe Thornton would
put the Wild on a power play at 7:10 of the period, but Guillaume Latandresse
evened things up with a holding the stick penalty a minute later. The Sharks
would use the extra ice to push their lead to 2-0.
Dany Heatley took a
Marc-Edouard Vlasic feed along the let wing boards, before heading to the net.
With Malhotra as an option on his right, Heatley made Backstrom think about two
options. The Sharks forward carried the puck to the top of the crease before
sliding a backhand shot past Backstrom for his 38th goal of the season.
A Torrey Mitchell interference penalty put the Sharks
on the PK with 9 minutes to play in the period, and Mikko Koivu just missed
converting with a shot that clanked off the right post. Lantandresse would make
up for that miss with his 27th goal of the season, while Evgeni Nabokov was
flopping around in the crease like a fish.
Torrey Mitchell gave the
Sharks some breathing room just 17 seconds into the 3rd period with just his
2nd goal of the season. Mitchell sent a one-time chance from the right dot
after Ryane Clowe slid a pass to his line-mate from the right corner.
A cross-checking penalty to Heatley put the Wild on the power play with 3:31 to
play, but Minnesota could not capitalize.
Wild head coach Todd
Richards pulled Backstrom with a minute to play, but the Sharks converted an
empty-net chance when Thornton carried the puck up the ice for the east
deposit.
Game Notes:
Sharks forward Scott Nichol was scratched
from Tuesday night's game. Jed Ortmeyer made his way back into the lineup after
missing Sunday's game in Edmonton.
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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 |
SJ |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
MIN |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
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1st period - 1, SJ,
Pavelski 22 (Marleau, Malhotra), 5:12. |
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2nd period - 2, MIN,
Heatley 38 (Vlasic, Blake), 8:35. 3, MIN, Latandresse 27 (Ebbett, Burns),
12:44, (pp). |
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3rd period - 4, SJ,
Mitchell 2 (Clowe, Blake), 0:17. 5, SJ, Thornton 19 (Clowe, Blake), 19:18,
(en). |
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1st period - Scott, MIN
(boarding), 8:31; Malhotra, SJ (interference), 18:05. |
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2nd period -
Koivu, MIN (hooking), 0:34; Schultz, MIN (hooking), 4:06; Thornton , SJ
(hooking), 7:10; Latandresse, MIN (holding the stick), 8:07; Mitchell, SJ
(interference), 11:00; Clutterbuck, MIN (boarding), 13:12. |
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3rd period -
Heatley, SJ (cross checking), 16:29. |
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Shots |
Saves |
SJ - Nabokov |
19 |
18 |
MIN - Backstrom |
16 |
13 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
6 |
7 |
4 |
16 |
MIN |
9 |
5 |
5 |
19 |
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Referees: Martell,
Sutherland. Linesmen: Heyer, McElman. |
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