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Sharks battle back to take Game
3 McGinn's major penalty almost jeopardizes
win
The San Jose Sharks turned the tables on the
Vancouver Canucks on Friday night at HP Pavilion, taking a 4-3 decision in a
wild Game 3. The Sharks cruised for most of the evening, but a boarding major
by Jamie McGinn gave the Canucks a 5 minute power play with 8:38 to play,
allowing Vancouver to rally. The Canucks scored two goals on the lengthy power
play to make things interesting late, but San Jose held on to cut Vancouver's
series lead to 2-1.
McGinn's hit was borderline, catching Aaron Rome
in the left shoulder and sending the Canucks defenseman crashing into the right
corner boards. Bloodied, dazed and confused, Rome had to be helped off the ice
by the Canucks training staff. The opportunistic Canucks then chipped away at
San Jose's lead.
"I'm a player who finishes my checks," McGinn said.
"I'm not trying to hurt anyone out there. It's unfortunate he got hurt. I tried
to cut him and and I thought I hit him on the shoulder."
Special teams
was the name of the game, as the teams combined for 5 power play goals,
including the pair that Vancouver scored after McGinn's exit. The Sharks were
one better however, having put three pucks past Roberto Luongo on the
man-advantage.
One of those was Dan Boyle's tally at 6:46 of the 3rd
period that turned out to be the game winner.
Even though the Sharks
prevailed, the final 9 minutes was an unfortunate way to wrap things up. The
Sharks stormed out to a big lead in the opening period on an about face
performance from Game 2. San Jose skated like a team backed into a corner.
Maxim Lapierre was sent off for roughing 2:03 into the contest after
trying to take Ian White's head off with a hit behind the Sharks net. The San
Jose power play remained perfect in the series, scoring for the 4th time in as
many chances at 3:56. Patrick Marleau redirected a shot from the doorstep,
after Joe Thornton put a centering pass on Marleau's tape from the left corner.
Christian Ehrhoff opened up a nice sized cut on Torrey Mitchell, near
his left eye, giving the Sharks a 4 minute power play.
San Jose made
it 5-for-5 on the man advantage, when Ryane Clowe sent a put-back chance under
Roberto Luongo's pads for his 5th goal of the playoffs. Dan Boyle had bounced a
shot off the netminder, allowing Clowe to control the rebound.
The
Sharks couldn't convert on the 2nd half of the penalty, but not before Thornton
put a chance off another rebound just wide of the right post.
At one
point San Jose was out-shooting Vancouver 15-1.
Marleau made it 3-0
Sharks off a breakaway chance after stripping Alex Edler of the puck at his own
blueline. The speedy Sharks forward raced up ice uncontested and lifted a shot
over Luongo's glove hand for his 7th goal of the playoffs.
"Things are
just starting to go in," Marleau said. "I'm playing with some pretty good
players obviously, the best passer in the league. I'm just getting to some good
areas and he's finding me, and the puck's starting to go in."
Devin
Setoguchi almost cost the Sharks with a bad pass deep in his own zone, that
floated out to Mason Raymond for a scoring chance that Antii Niemi denied with
a big save. The play materialized with 5 seconds left in the period, so a
Canucks goal would have given Vancouver some jump to start the 2nd period.
Aaron Rome hauled down Jamie McGinn in front of the Canucks net to
earn a 2 minute break at 3:20 of the 2nd period. The Canucks had the best
scoring chance after Rome exited the box and fed Maxim Lapierre in front of the
Sharks net for a backhand chance that Niemi was forced to glove.
Luongo made a spectacular save on a 2-on-0 break, stoning Andrew Desjardins.
Jamie McGinn setup the nice scoring chance with a feed from the left side, and
also drew a hooking penalty on Kevin Bieksa to put the Sharks back on the power
play.
Joe Pavelski evened things up with an interference penalty a
minute later.
Bieksa took a cross checking penalty in front of the
Sharks net, to put the Sharks on the power play for the 6th time in the game.
San Jose failed to get another puck past Luongo, but not for a shortage of
rubber being thrown his way.
Andrew Desjardins and Thornton took holding the stick
penalties 34 seconds apart to give the Canucks a 5-on-3 power play. Niemi made
a nice save on Alex Burrows early in the penalty.
Desjardins made a
rookie mistake, tripping up a Canuck right after stepping out of the penalty
box. That kept the Sharks down by 2 skaters for another 30 seconds, but the
Sharks special teams came up huge, killing off all three penalties to keep the
lead at 3 goals. Douglas Murray and Pavelski anchored the kill, each averaging
9 minutes of ice time on the penalty kill through two periods.
"They
didn't capitalize on theirs (5-on-3)," said Thornton."You never know. It's
"
Vancouver scratched out a goal 69 seconds into the 3rd period after
Dan Boyle sent a bad backhand pass up the middle of the ice from the front of
his own net. Niemi didn't help matters by falling before Burrows intercepted
the weak pass and fired it home to make it a 3-1 game.
"They didn't
capitalize on theirs (5-on-3)," said Thornton."You never know. It's 3-1 up to
that point, you don't know that that's going to be the game winner."
Kesler and Burrows traded tripping penalties 25 seconds apart to give San Jose
a 5-on-3 chance. Dan Boyle pumped home his 3rd goal of the playoffs from the
high slot before Burrows penalty expired. San Jose didn't convert on the second
chance, but the damage had been done.
"They didn't capitalize on theirs
(5-on-3)," said Thornton."You never know. It's 3-1 up to that point, you don't
know that that's going to be the game winner."
Rome continued the
penalty parade with a cross checking penalty at 8:27. Setoguchi missed on a
great chance after taking a centering feed from Thornton and slicing to the
net.
After McGinn ended Rome's evening, The Canucks went to work.
Dan Hamhuis deposited a cross-ice pass from Henrik Sedin early in the
power play, then Bieksa sent a shot that deflected off Ian White and into the
goal 2:25 later to cut the Sharks lead to 4-3.
Vancouver pulled Luongo
with 1:40 remaining, but Bieksa was forced to hook Ryane Clowe to prevent a
goal. Lapierre was also sent packing for jawing, earning a 10-minute
misconduct.
Game Notes
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
VAN |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
SJ |
3 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
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1st period - 1, SJ,
Marleau 6 (Thornton, Setoguchi), 3:56, (pp). 2, SJ, Clowe 5 (Boyle, White),
8:22, (pp). 3, SJ, Marleau 7 (Thornton), 17:25. |
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3rd period - 4, VAN,
Burrows 5 (unassisted), 1:09. 5, SJ, Boyle 3 (Marleau, Thornton), 6:46, (pp).
6, VAN, Hamhuis 1 (H. Sedin), 13:39, (pp). 7, VAN, Bieksa 4 (Raymond, Hansen),
16:04. |
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1st period - Lapierre,
VAN (roughing), 2:03; Ehrhoff, VAN (high sticking - double minor), 6:54. |
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2nd period - Rome, VAN
(hooking), 3:20; Bieksa, VAN (hooking), 6:34; Pavelski, SJ ( interference),
7:47; Bieksa, VAN (cross checking), 10:30; Desjardins, SJ (holding the stick),
14:27; Thornton, SJ (holding the stick), 15:01; Desjardins, SJ (tripping),
16:32. |
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3rd period - Kesler, VAN
(tripping), 5:02; Burrows, VAN (tripping), 5:27; Rome, VAN (cross checking),
8:27; McGinn, SJ (boarding major), 11:22; McGinn, SJ (game misconduct), 11:22;
Bieksa, VAN (hooking), 19:09; Lapieere, VAN (10 min misconduct), 19:09; Kesler,
VAN (slashing), 20:00. |
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Shots |
Saves |
VAN - Luongo |
38 |
34 |
SJ - Niemi |
30 |
27 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
VAN |
8 |
13 |
9 |
30 |
SJ |
16 |
14 |
8 |
38 |
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Referees: Watson,
O'Rourke. Linesmen: Miller, Racicot. |
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