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Backstrom and penalties stop
Sharks surge
Wild shuts out SJ at Xcel Energy
Center
Mamma said there would be days like this. It
wasn’t for a lack of trying, but the Sharks had no answers for Niklas
Backstrom and the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night as they kicked off an
abridged two game road trip with a 1-0 loss in Minneapolis. After the Sharks
scored 5 goals in back to back games, they were expected to breeze past one of
the most anemic offenses in the NHL.
The Wild didn’t do much to
break out of their offensive doldrums, but a single goal was all it would take
on a night when Backstrom would stop all 36 shots thrown his way. The Wild
goaltender played a straight up style that suppressed the Sharks big three of
Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley, who combined for a paltry 6
shots on goal.
The Sharks didn’t do themselves any favors by
taking a steady stream of penalties throughout the evening. Any attempt to
build some momentum would be squelched by an untimely penalty. San Jose would
earn nine trips to the penalty box for minor infractions. Pretty difficult to
establish any flow if you’re playing a third of the game down a man.
Doing that against the league’s top ranked power play unit was
tantamount to playing with fire. You could say the Sharks did an admirable job
considering they only surrendered a single goal in nine chances against a team
that had converted on 30% of their power play chances.
San Jose
dominated the shot clock in the opening period 11-3, but couldn’t figure
out how to get a puck past Backstrom.
Failing to put any rubber past
Backstrom and some ill-timed penalties in the 2nd period would decide the game.
Sharks rookie left winger John McCarthy took a double minor for cutting Chuck
Kobisew with a high stick. Martin Havlat would make matters worse by baiting
referee Brian Pochmara into issuing a hooking penalty to Torrey Mitchell after
he held Mitchell’s stick.
Andrew Brunette would score the
game’s only goal on a one-time change from the outside the left post,
after Havlat sent a pass through the crease from the right corner. Because the
goal was scored before McCarthy’s first minor expired, the Sharks were
still forced to kill off an additional 79 seconds of 5-on-3 time.
Antero Niittymaki would deny the Wild form cashing in any further on the
two-man advantage by denying any big rebounds when Minnesota sent pucks on net.
The overall outcome was unfair to Niittymaki who turned in another solid
performance, stopping 15 of the 16 shots he would face.
San Jose would get a scare when Thornton was tripped
by Nick Schultz as he skated past the Minnesota net, which sent him sprawling
into the end boards. Thornton would lay on the ice, writhing in pain, but he
was able to skate back to the bench and would return later in the period.
Even with the power play chance, the Sharks would find a way to kill
their own momentum. This time Dan Boyle would get called for tripping. That,
combined with Backstrom’s miserly attitude to allowing pucks into his net
would keep the Sharks from challenging the Minnesota lead.
The
Minnesota netminder would deny the Sharks from drawing even by stopping 16
shots in the final period to make the Wild’s slim lead hold up.
San Jose looked to pull Niittymaki for the extra attacker, but a Jason Demers
interference penalty with 46 seconds remaining in regulation would prevent the
Sharks from mounting a last ditch effort to tie things up.
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think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| MIN |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
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| 2nd period - 1, MIN,
Brunette 3 (Havlat, Koivu), 13:19, (pp). |
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| 1st period - Murray, SJ
(goaltender interference), 4:39; Falk, MIN (interference), 12:53; Pavelski, SJ
(holding), 18:45; Koivu, MIN (tripping), 19:15. |
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| 2nd period - Zanon, MIN
(slashing), 2:20; Clowe, SJ (roughing), 5:06; Clowe, SJ (roughing), 5:06; Falk,
MIN (roughing), 5:06; Burns, MIN (goaltender interference), 7:10; McCarthy, SJ
(high sticking – double minor), 11:27; Mitchell, SJ (hooking), 12:38.
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| 3rd period -
Setoguchi, SJ (holding), 5:33; Schultz, MIN (tripping), 10:51; Boyle, SJ
(tripping), 12:29; Demers, SJ (interference), 19:14. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Niittymaki |
16 |
15 |
| MIN - Backstrom |
36 |
36 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
11 |
9 |
16 |
36 |
| MIN |
3 |
6 |
7 |
16 |
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| Referees: Pochmara,
VanMassenhoven. Linesmen: Brisebois, Pancich. |
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