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Demons far from
exorcised Sharks fall to eighth seeded Avalanche in
series opener
If the Sharks were planning on shedding their
playoff demons this year, they started with the one step backwards approach on
Wednesday night. The top seeded Sharks once again tripped out of the gate
against the eight seed, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Colorado Avalanche at HP
Pavilion. The storyline is a like a bad dream that keeps haunting the Sharks.
Failure by the top line to show up and goaltending good enough to lose
is the recurring theme that revisited the Tank on Wednesday night. Joe
Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley were nullified by a trapping
Avalanche defense that made the Sharks line irrelevant all night long.
Colorado took a page out of Anaheim s playbook
for last season, slowing the Sharks down, then capitalizing on their chances.
To add to the drama of Wednesday nights defeat was the fact that Colorado
scored the game winner with 50 seconds left in regulation.
San
Joses offense sputtered all night, but managed to tie the game with 12
minutes left in regulation. The game looked like it was destined to go to
overtime before winger Chris Stewart threw the puck toward the net from the
right corner, deflecting it off defenseman Rob Blakes skate and into the
net.
They didnt do much different in the second period than
they did in the first," said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. "I thought it was
more our inability to execute very well. Our passing was a little bit
off. Whether it was a pass or a failure to convert and the result was it
slowed our game down a lot. They did a really good job of clogging up the
neutral zone.
Blake was trying to deal with T.J. Galiardi, who had
parked himself in front the Sharks net while Stewart setup his shot. Sharks
goaltender Evgeni Nabokov had position on the shot, but after hit bounced off
Blakes skate there was nothing he could do to defend it. The bigger
concern for San Jose s coaches is figuring out how Colorado was putting
multiple shots on net deep in the Sharks zone with the game on the line.
Galiardi had just plowed into Nabokov after Colorado just missed on a
scoring chance, but there were no defenders to either chase the puck or clear
the Avalanche forwards away from the front of the net.
We knew this was
going to be easy," said Nabokov. "We knew they're a bunch of young hungry guys
and they were going to come at us hard. One lucky bounce and we found ourselves
short."
San Joses opportunities were limited throughout the
night, but the ones they had were squandered.
Stewart opened the game
with a hooking penalty just 28 seconds in. San Jose generated six shots on the
ensuing power play, but everything hit Colorado netminder Craig Anderson in the
middle of the chest. Anderson gobbled up every shot with ease, not allowing any
rebounds.
Colorado would outshoot the Sharks 11-6 over the
remainder of the period. Colorados best chance to score in the opening
period came on a 2-on-1 break that ended with a Darcy Tucker shot that sailed
just wide of the left post with 6:30 left in the period.
Devin
Setoguchi missed on a wide open net with a backhand chance three minutes later.
The sharks forward was positioned in front of Colorado s net when a Joe
Pavelski feed landed on Setoguchis stick. Anderson was caught out of
position, but Setoguchis shot attempt was deflected by Adam Foote to keep
the game scoreless.
The Avalanche would counter after Setoguchis
miss, with Paul Stastny putting a shot on net that clanked off the right post.
Blake and Pavelski teamed up on a play eight minutes into the 2nd
period which resulted in a deflection hitting off the crossbar.
A
holding penalty to Blake at 11:46 of the period put the Avalanche on the
man-advantage and the 21st ranked power play unit used all of 52 seconds to
open the games scoring. Defenseman John-Michael Liles pumped a shot from
the blueline that slipped past Nabokov. Colorado had two forwards crowding the
front of the net, screening Nabokov from getting a good look at the shot.
"We weren't executing," said Marleau. "We weren't making passes on the
tape. The time we did get a stick on it, we didn't get it all the way in.
"
Rookie forward Matt Duchene went hard into the boards with 4 minutes
left in the period and had to limp off the ice. With Duchene disabled and
struggling to get back to the Colorado bench, the Sharks had an odd-man
advantage, but they failed to take advantage.
They would finally get on the board at 7:59 of the 3rd
period when Ryane Clowe sent a shot from the outside of the right circle to the
net. Pavelski was parked in front of Anderson screening him from the low liner
which slipped just inside the right post.
The goal finally got the
home crowd into the game, which seemed to energize the Sharks, but they would
fail to capitalize.
Even the lucky bounces failed to materialize in a
go-ahead goal for San Jose . With 6 minutes left in regulation, the Sharks
tried dumping the puck into the Colorado zone. The puck caught a seem in left
wing boards glass, deflecting right toward the Avalanche net. Expecting the
puck to wind around the end boards, Anderson stepped out of his net to try an
intercept it. He was forced to dive across the crease to stop the wayward puck.
Its a big win and we are excited," said Avalanche head
coach Joe Sacco. "I thought our guys played with a lot of passion and a lot of
energy. Its a big win to start the series but there is a lot of work left
to do.
Game Notes:
Forward Jed Ortmeyer was
scratched for an undisclosed injury. Rookie defenseman Jason Demers saw time on
the Sharks 4th line, replacing Ortmeyer.
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What did you
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
COL |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
SJ |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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2nd period - 1, COL ,
Liles 1 (Duchene, Stastny), 12:38, (pp). |
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3rd period - 2, SJ,
Clowe 1 (Setoguchi, Vlasic), 7:59. 3, COL , Stewart 1 (Stastny, Galiardi),
19:10. |
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1st period - Stewart ,
COL (hooking), 0:28. |
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2nd period - Yip, COL
(interference), 7:08; Marleau, SJ (holding), 7:08; Blake, SJ (hooking), 11:46;
Setoguchi, SJ (hooking), 17:07. |
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3rd period -
Galiardi , COL (holding), 2:49. |
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Shots |
Saves |
COL - Anderson |
26 |
25 |
SJ - Nabokov |
30 |
28 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
COL |
11 |
12 |
7 |
30 |
SJ |
12 |
3 |
11 |
26 |
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Referees: Peel,
O'Rourke. Linesmen: Cvik, Murray. |
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