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Pavelski's non-hat trick keeps
Sharks rolling
SJ jumps on St Louis early in 5-3
win
The last time the Sharks played the St Louis Blues,
the Sharks were sitting in 12th place in the Western Conference standings.
After Saturday night’s 5-3 victory over the Blues, the Sharks have a
three-point buffer as they sit in the three-spot and the Pacific Division lead.
Joe Pavelski led the Sharks with a pair of goals. Pavelski was originally
credited with a hat-trick, but the official scorer made a change following the
game.
San Jose played their second consecutive game without forward
Dany Heatley, who was serving the final game of his elbowing suspension. The
Sharks were without head coach Todd McLellan, who flew to Saskatchewan to
attend the funeral of his brother-in-law.
Both are expected to be back
on Wednesday, when the Sharks face the Calgary Flames, but San Jose may be
without the services of Logan Couture, who suffered an injury to his right leg
early in the 2nd period. Couture hit the end boards awkwardly after he was
checked off a puck. The rookie forward had to be helped off the ice by two
teammates and did not return to the game.
All but mathematically
eliminated from the playoff race, the Blues had nothing to lose entering
Saturday night’s game, but three 1st period goals by the Sharks dug a hole
that St Louis could not recover from.
“Points at this time of
year are always important and I thought our guys came to play, like they always
do and jumped on them early,” said Sharks assistant coach Trent Yawney,
who was filling in for McLellan as the bench boss.
Torrey Mitchell
scored his 7th of the season 4 minutes into the contest, pumping a rebound past
Jaroslav Halak. San Jose swarmed the St Louis net, putting two shots on goal
from point blank range, before the puck finally landed on Mitchell’s
stick.
Halak lofted the puck into the screen on a clearing attempt
that put the Sharks on the power play 30 seconds later. San Jose struck early,
converting on the power play just 11 seconds after Halak’s infraction.
Patrick Marleau pumped a 30-foot shot home for his 29th goal of the season. The
goal was originally credited to Pavelski, but was then given to
Marleau.
B.J. Crombeen was then sent off for an unsportsmanlike conduct
at 6:44 to put the sharks back on the power play. Pavelski made it 3-0 with a
blast from the high slot that slipped just inside the left post. Alex
Pietrangelo screened Halak on the play as he sat positioned at the top of the
crease.
That goal ended Halak’s evening as Blues head coach Davis
Payne pulled his netminder in favor of Ty Conklin, who was immediately forced
to suppress more Sharks pressure. The new goaltender had to make a save on a
Devin Setoguchi breakaway attempt midway through the period to keep the Blues
within three goals.
“Back to back power play goals really kind of
put us in a tough spot, there were times we pushed in the first period I
thought Niemi made some real good saves that could have got us back into that
game earlier,” said Payne.
Antti Niemi faced 15 shots-on-goal in
each of the three periods, which included a big shot with a minute remaining in
the opening period that he turned aside with a kick-save. A dark cloud would be
cast over the Sharks big period when Couture crashed into dasher behind the St
Louis net at the start of the 2nd period.
T.J. Hensick cut the Sharks
lead to 3-1, scoring his 1st goal of the season at 8:19 of the period. Matt
D’Agostini took a 60-foot lead pass from Ian Cole before splitting two
Shark defenders on his way to the net. Niemi made the save, but the puck shot
straight up into the air. When the puck came back to earth, it hit Hensick in
the skate, deflecting into the net.
Setoguchi pushed the Sharks lead
back to three goals four minutes later by firing a shot from the top of the
right circle. Blues defenseman Roman Polak tried to knock the shot down with
his stick, but he ended up changing the trajectory of the shot. That would
cross up Conklin as the puck bounced off the ice and skipped past the Blues
goaltender.
Jason Demers threw a pretty hip check on Adam
Cracknell with 4 minutes to play before the 2nd intermission, which drew the
ire of the Blues. Ryan Reaves let Demers have it with a series of cross-checks
to the defenseman’s backside that drew off-setting penalties after Ryane
Clowe got involved.
Pavelski converted on his 2nd goal of the night
with 5.3 seconds left in the period, by deflecting a Dan Boyle shot from the
right point. Pavelski was positioned at the bottom of the right circle, where
he got his stick blade on the Boyle shot, redirecting it through Conklin’s
five-hole.
Niemi kept it a 5-1 game with a nice same on Cole 5 minutes
into the 3rd period after the Blues forward walked in on the Sharks net.
He would be more accommodating at the 8 minute mark, by allowing David
Backes to fire a shot that slipped through Niemi’s pads and trickled over
the goal line. The goal was Backes’ 26th of the season.
Niemi
made two big stick saves with 4:30 to play, denying Hensick on a shot from the
left side, right before the Blues forward circled behind the Sharks net and
tried stuffing a wrap-around chance on the opposite side.
Andy
MacDonald capped the game’s scoring at 18:21 with a blast from the high
slot after the sharks failed to get the puck out of their own end. The Blues
applied a spirited forecheck to generate the scoring chance.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| STL |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| SJ |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Mitchell 7 (Pavelski, White), 4:03. 2, SJ, Marleau 29 (Setoguchi, Thornton),
4:45, (pp). 3, SJ, Pavelski 15 (Boyle, Thornton), 7:41, (pp). |
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| 2nd period - 4, STL,
Hensick 1 (D’Agostini, Cole), 8:19. 5, SJ, Setoguchi 20 (Marleau,
Thornton), 12:30. 6, SJ, Pavelski 16 (Boyle, Mitchell), 19:54. |
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| 3rd period - 7, STL
Backes 26 (Colaiacovo, Pietrangelo), 8:00. 8, STL, MacDonald 18 (Backes,
D’Agostini), 18:21. |
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| 1st period - Halak, STL
(delay of game – puck over glass), 4:33; Crombeen, STL (unsportsmanlike
conduct), 6:44. |
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| 2nd period - Reaves, STL
(cross checking), 16:00; Clowe, SJ (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:00; Mitchell,
SJ (hooking), 17:24. |
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| 3rd period - Demers, SJ
(delay of game – puck over glass), 10:57. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| STL - Halak |
10 |
7 |
| STL - COnklin |
24 |
22 |
| SJ - Niemi |
45 |
42 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| STL |
15 |
15 |
15 |
45 |
| SJ |
15 |
14 |
5 |
34 |
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| Referees: LaRue,
Leggo. Linesmen: Cameron, Henderson. |
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